Amazing facts about the kiwi bird

The kiwi is a flightless nocturnal bird that has existed on the island of New Zealand for over 30 million years. In fact, this curious little animal has been the national icon of New Zealand since the 19th century. Whist they may resemble echidnas, They are actually members of the family of birds known as ratites along with ostriches emus and cassowaries. For millions of years, they co-existed with another ratite species in new Zealand, the giant Moa. Common sense would tell you that since the kiwi and Moas existed on the same island, then they must be closely related. However, that simply is not the case. They are actually more closely related to the giant elephant birds of Madagascar. The elephant bird, surprise surprise was an enormous species of ratite that existed for tens of millions of years before abruptly going extinct a few hundred years ago likely, due to human activity. The largest species stood at least 3 meters tall and weighed upwards of 650 kg. Over 400 times larger than the kiwi bird which is