Land of flightess birds

摘要

New Zealand has always been known as a kingdom of birds. But it is also remarkable for how many of those birds are flightless -or used to be, because some have now died out. More types of land bird lost the power of flight in this country than anywhere else on Earth. They were able to evolve flightlessness on this island paradise because of a lack of enemies, including a total absence of predatory land mammals and snakes. And then, of course, there are also the penguins, of which New Zealand is blessed with no fewer than six species - a third of the world's total.