Goat
The domestic goat or goat is a subspecies of C. aegagrus domesticated from the wild goat of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the animal family Bovidae and the goat—antelope subfamily Caprinae, meaning it is related to the sheep. There are over 300 distinct breeds of goat. Goats are one of the oldest domesticated species of animal, have been used for milk, meat and skins across much of the world. Milk from goats is turned into goat cheese. Female goats are referred to as does or nannies, intact males are called bucks or billies and juvenile goats of both sexes are called kids. Castrated males are called wethers. While the words hircine and caprine both refer to anything having a goat-like quality, hircine is used most to emphasize the distinct smell of domestic goats. In 2011, there were more than 924 million goats living in the world, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization; the Modern English word goat comes from Old English gāt "she-goat, goat in general", which in turn derives from Proto-Germanic *gaitaz from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰaidos meaning "young goat", itself from a root meaning "jump".
To refer to the male, Old English used bucca until ousted by hegote, hegoote in the late 12th century. Nanny goat originated in the 18th billy goat in the 19th. Goats are among the earliest animals domesticated by humans; the most recent genetic analysis confirms the archaeological evidence that the wild Bezoar ibex of the Zagros Mountains is the original ancestor of all domestic goats today. Neolithic farmers began to herd wild goats for easy access to milk and meat, as well as to their dung, used as fuel, their bones and sinew for clothing and tools; the earliest remnants of domesticated goats dating 10,000 years before present are found in Ganj Dareh in Iran. Goat remains have been found at archaeological sites in Jericho, Choga Mami, Çayönü, dating the domestication of goats in Western Asia at between 8000 and 9000 years ago. Studies of DNA evidence suggests 10,000 years BP as the domestication date. Goat hide has been used for water and wine bottles in both traveling and transporting wine for sale.
It has been used to produce parchment. Each recognized breed of goat has specific weight ranges, which vary from over 140 kg for bucks of larger breeds such as the Boer, to 20 to 27 kg for smaller goat does. Within each breed, different strains or bloodlines may have different recognized sizes. At the bottom of the size range are miniature breeds such as the African Pygmy, which stand 41 to 58 cm at the shoulder as adults. Most goats have two horns, of various shapes and sizes depending on the breed. There have been incidents of polycerate goats, although this is a genetic rarity thought to be inherited. Unlike cattle, goats have not been bred to be reliably polled, as the genes determining sex and those determining horns are linked. Breeding together two genetically polled goats results in a high number of intersex individuals among the offspring, which are sterile, their horns are made of living bone surrounded by keratin and other proteins, are used for defense and territoriality. Goats are ruminants.
They have a four-chambered stomach consisting of the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum, the abomasum. As with other mammal ruminants, they are even-toed ungulates; the females have an udder consisting in contrast to cattle, which have four teats. An exception to this is the Boer goat. Goats have slit-shaped pupils; because goats' irises are pale, their contrasting pupils are much more noticeable than in animals such as cattle, most horses and many sheep, whose horizontal pupils blend into a dark iris and sclera. Both male and female goats have beards, many types of goat may have wattles, one dangling from each side of the neck. Goats expressing the tan pattern have coats pigmented with phaeomelanin; the allele which codes for this pattern is located at the agouti locus of the goat genome. It is dominant to all other alleles at this locus. There are multiple modifier genes which control how much tan pigment is expressed, so a tan-patterned goat can have a coat ranging from pure white to deep red. Goats reach puberty depending on breed and nutritional status.
Many breeders prefer to postpone breeding. However, this separation is possible in extensively managed, open-range herds. In temperate climates and among the Swiss breeds, the breeding season commences as the day length shortens, ends in early spring or before. In equatorial regions, goats are able to breed at any time of the year. Successful breeding in these regions depends more on available forage than on day length. Does of any breed or region come into estrus every 21 days for two to 48 hours. A doe in heat flags her tail stays near the buck if one is present, becomes more vocal, may show a decrease in appetite and milk production for the duration of the heat. Bucks of Swiss and northern breeds come into rut in the fall. Bucks of equatorial breeds may show seasonal reduced fertility
Bovidae
The Bovidae are the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes bison, African buffalo, water buffalo, wildebeest, gazelles, goats and domestic cattle. A member of this family is called a bovid. With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species, the family Bovidae consists of eight major subfamilies apart from the disputed Peleinae and Pantholopinae; the family evolved 20 million years ago, in the early Miocene. The bovids show great variation in pelage colouration. Excepting some domesticated forms, all male bovids have two or more horns, in many species females possess horns, too; the size and shape of the horns vary but the basic structure is always one or more pairs of simple bony protrusions without branches having a spiral, twisted or fluted form, each covered in a permanent sheath of keratin. Most bovids bear 30 to 32 teeth. Most bovids are diurnal. Social activity and feeding peak during dawn and dusk. Bovids rest before dawn, during midday, after dark, they have various methods of social organisation and social behaviour, which are classified into solitary and gregarious behaviour.
Bovids use different forms of vocal and tangible communication. Most species alternately ruminate throughout the day. While small bovids forage in dense and closed habitat, larger species feed on high-fiber vegetation in open grasslands. Most bovids are polygynous. Mature bovids mate at least once a year and smaller species may mate twice. In some species, neonate bovids remain hidden for a week to two months nursed by their mothers; the greatest diversities of bovids occur in Africa. The maximum concentration of species is in the savannas of eastern Africa. Other bovid species occur in Europe and North America. Bovidae includes three of the five domesticated mammals whose use has spread outside their original ranges, namely cattle and goats. Dairy products such as milk and cheese are manufactured from domestic cattle. Bovids provide leather and wool; the name "Bovidae" was given by the British zoologist John Edward Gray in 1821. The word "Bovidae" is the combination of the prefix bov- and the suffix -idae.
The family Bovidae is placed in the order Artiodactyla. It includes 143 extant species, accounting for nearly 55% of the ungulates, 300 known extinct species. Molecular studies have supported monophyly in the family Bovidae; the number of subfamilies in Bovidae is disputed, with suggestions of as many as ten and as few as two subfamilies. However, molecular and fossil evidence indicates the existence of eight distinct subfamilies: Aepycerotinae, Antilopinae, Caprinae, Cephalophinae and Reduncinae. In addition, three extinct subfamilies are known: Hypsodontinae and the subfamily Tethytraginae, which contains Tethytragus. In 1992, Alan W. Gentry of the Natural History Museum, London divided the eight major subfamilies of Bovidae into two major clades on the basis of their evolutionary history: the Boodontia, which comprised only the Bovinae, the Aegodontia, which consisted of the rest of the subfamilies. Boodonts have somewhat primitive teeth, resembling those of oxen, whereas aegodonts have more advanced teeth like those of goats.
A controversy exists about the recognition of Peleinae and Patholopinae, comprising the genera Pelea and Pantholops as subfamilies. In 2000, American biologist George Schaller and palaeontologist Elisabeth Vrba suggested the inclusion of Pelea in Reduncinae, though the grey rhebok, the sole species of Pelea, is different from kobs and reduncines in morphology. Pantholops, earlier classified in the Antilopinae, was placed in its own subfamily, Pantholopinae; however and morphological analysis supports the inclusion of Pantholops in Caprinae. Below is a cladogram based on Gatesy et Gentry et al.. In the early Miocene, bovids giraffids; the earliest bovids, whose presence in Africa and Eurasia in the latter part of early Miocene has been ascertained, were small animals, somewhat similar to modern gazelles, lived in woodland environments. Eotragus, the earliest known bovid, weighed 18 kg and was nearly the same in size as the Thompson's gazelle. Early in their evolutionary history, the bovids split into two main clades: Boodontia and Aegodontia.
This early split between Boodontia and Aegodontia has been attributed to the continental divide between these land masses. When these continents were rejoined, this barrier was removed, either group expanded into the territory of the other; the tribes Bovini and Tragelaphini diverged in the early Miocene. Bovids are known to have reached the Americas in the Pleistocene by crossing the Bering land bridge; the present genera of Alcelaphinae appeared in the Pliocene. The extinct Alcelaphine genus Paramularius, the same in size as the hartebeest, is believed to have come into being in the Pliocene, but became extinct in the middle Pleistocene. Several genera of Hippotraginae are known
Rila
Rila is a mountain range in southwestern Bulgaria and the highest mountain range of Bulgaria and the Balkans, with its highest peak being Musala at 2,925 m. The massif is the sixth highest mountain in Europe, coming after the Caucasus, the Alps, Sierra Nevada, the Pyrenees and Mount Etna, the highest between the Alps and the Caucasus, it is the 4th most topographic isolated mountain in Continental Europe. More than one-third of the mountain is occupied by the Rila National Park, the rest lies within the Rila Monastery Nature Park; the mountain is believed to have been named after the river of the same name, which comes from the Old Bulgarian verb "рыти" meaning "to grub". Rila is abundant in hot springs in fault areas at the base of the mountain; some of the Balkans' longest and deepest rivers originate from Rila, including Maritsa and Mesta. Culturally, Rila is famous for the Rila Monastery, Bulgaria's largest and most important monastery, founded in the 10th century by Saint John of Rila. Alongside the cultural landmarks the mountain is famous for the Seven Rila Lakes.
Rila is a dome-shaped horst mountain, part of the Balkans' oldest land, the Macedono-Thracian Massif. It was formed by gneiss rocks and crystal schists during the Cenozoic. Rila's alpine relief was formed during the Pleistocene by a series of glacial periods. During the most recent, so-called Würm glaciation, 10-12,000 years ago the permanent snow line was at 2,100 m above sea level. Above this line glaciers radically changed the existing relief, carving out deep cirques, sharp pyramid-shaped peaks, rock pinnacles, various valleys and other typical glacial formations. Rila has an area of 2,400 km2; the dome of the mountain rises over the surrounding mountain valleys, with the Borovets Saddle connecting the main Musala Ridge with the Shipochan and Shumnatitsa ridges that connect to the Ihtiman Sredna Gora mountains through the Gate of Trajan pass. The Yundola Saddle and the Avramovo Saddle link Rila with the Rhodopes to the east, while the connection with Pirin is the Predel Saddle, the one with Verila being the Klisura Saddle.
The climate is alpine, with 2,000 mm of precipitation on Musala yearly, about half of, snow. The lowest average temperature measured in February on Musala is –11.6 °C and the absolute minimum is -31.2 °C. An average temperature for August is 5.4 °C, the maximum being 18.7 °C. The flora of Rila contains three local endemics; these plants are Rheum rhaponticum and Alchemilla pawlowskii. In the mountain thrives 36 plants as Campanula lanata, Centaurea mannagettae which are endemic for the Balkans; some of the plant species have survived the last glacial period by turning into relict organisms. Some of the animals, which live in Rila, are in danger as well. 24 of the species that inhabit Rila are listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. There are 172 types of vertebrates living in Rila and 121 of them are registered in the Bulgarian Red List of Threatened Species, 15 are recorded in the European Red List of Threatened Species, 24 are listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature and 158 of 172 are included in the Bern Convention lists.
Such animals are Triturus alpestris, Spermophilus citellus and others. There are 48 mammal species in National park Rila Insectivores Eastern European hedgehog ShrewBats BatsLagomorphs European rabbitRodents European ground squirrel Vole Water vole Wild miceCarnivores Brown bear Eurasian badger European otter European pine marten Grey wolf Least weasel Marten Red fox Wild catEven-toed ungulates Alpine ibex Red deer Roe deer Wild boar Wild goat Rila is subdivided into several parts depending on their geographic position. East Rila or the Musala Ridge is the highest and vastest part; the highest peak, as well as 12 of the 18 peaks over 2,700 m are located there — Musala, Irechek, Deno Mancho, etc. The Musala Lakes lie in this part of Rila, as well as Ledeno ezero, the highest lake of the Balkans at 2,709 m. Other lakes in East Rila include the Ropalitsa Lakes; the renowned mountain resort of Borovets is located in this part of the mountain. Central Rila or the Skakavets Ridge is the smallest part, most famous for the glacial lakes — the Fish Lakes, Dzhendem Lakes, Monastery Lakes.
The largest glacial lake of the Balkans, Smradlivo ezero with an area of 21.2 km2 is located in Central Rila, as well as the peaks Kanarata, Cherna polyana, Malak Skakavets and Golyam Skakavets, Rilets. The ridge of the Skakavtsi rises isolated between the Beli Iskar rivers. Another well-known ridge in the area is the one of Marinkovitsa and Vodniya chal, extending to the forest reserve of Kobilino branishte. Northwest Rila takes up 25% of Rila's total area; the highest peak is Golyam Kupen at 2,731 m. The Seven Rila Lakes are an important landmark in this part, as well as the many remote peaks and small lakes. Southwest Rila or the Kapatnik Ridge occupies 30% of Rila and has the oldest reserve of Bulgaria. Apart from its small northern part, Southwest Rila does not have the alpine appearance of the other parts. Musala — 2,925 m Malka Musala — 2,902 m Irechek - 2,852 m Deno - 2,790 m Ovcharets — 2,768 m Golyam Kupen — 2,731 m Malyovitsa — 2,729 m Popova kapa — 2,704 m Malka Malyovitsa — 2,698 m Lopushki
Salzburg Zoo
Salzburg Zoo referred to as Tiergarten Hellbrunn, is a zoo in Salzburg, Austria. It is 14 hectares in size, has 1200 animals from 140 species, it is located in Anifer Street, in the Anif District. Zoo Salzburg Salzburg Tourist Office – salzburg city tourist board website
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between Spain and France. Reaching a height of 3,404 metres altitude at the peak of Aneto, the range separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe, extends for about 491 km from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean Sea. For the most part, the main crest forms a divide between Spain and France, with the microstate of Andorra sandwiched in between; the Principality of Catalonia alongside with the Kingdom of Aragon in the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre have extended on both sides of the mountain range, with smaller northern portions now in France and larger southern parts now in Spain. In Greek mythology, Pyrene is a princess; the Greek historian Herodotus says. According to Silius Italicus, she was the virgin daughter of Bebryx, a king in Mediterranean Gaul by whom the hero Hercules was given hospitality during his quest to steal the cattle of Geryon during his famous Labours.
Hercules, characteristically drunk and lustful, violates the sacred code of hospitality and rapes his host's daughter. Pyrene runs away to the woods, afraid that her father will be angry. Alone, she pours out her story to the trees, attracting the attention of wild beasts who tear her to pieces. After his victory over Geryon, Hercules passes through the kingdom of Bebryx again, finding the girl's lacerated remains; as is the case in stories of this hero, the sober Hercules responds with heartbroken grief and remorse at the actions of his darker self, lays Pyrene to rest tenderly, demanding that the surrounding geography join in mourning and preserve her name: "struck by Herculean voice, the mountaintops shudder at the ridges. … The mountains hold on to the wept-over name through the ages." Pliny the Elder connects the story of Hercules and Pyrene to Lusitania, but rejects it as fabulosa fictional. Other classical sources derived the name from the Greek word for fire, Ancient Greek: πῦρ. According to Greek historian Diodorus Siculus "..in ancient times, we are told, certain herdsmen left a fire and the whole area of the mountains was consumed.
The Spanish Pyrenees are part of the following provinces, from east to west: Girona, Lleida, Huesca and Gipuzkoa. The French Pyrenees are part of the following départements, from east to west: Pyrénées-Orientales, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Atlantiques; the independent principality of Andorra is sandwiched in the eastern portion of the mountain range between the Spanish Pyrenees and French Pyrenees. Physiographically, the Pyrenees may be divided into three sections: the Atlantic, the Central, the Eastern Pyrenees. Together, they form a distinct physiographic province of the larger Alpine System division. In the Western Pyrenees, from the Basque mountains near the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean, the average elevation increases from west to east; the Central Pyrenees extend eastward from the Somport pass to the Aran Valley, they include the highest summits of this range: Pico d'Aneto 3,404 metres in the Maladeta ridge, Pico Posets 3,375 metres, Monte Perdido 3,355 metres.
In the Eastern Pyrenees, with the exception of one break at the eastern extremity of the Pyrénées Ariègeoises in the Ariège area, the mean elevation is remarkably uniform until a sudden decline occurs in the easternmost portion of the chain known as the Albères. Most foothills of the Pyrenees are on the Spanish side, where there is a large and complex system of ranges stretching from Spanish Navarre, across northern Aragon and into Catalonia reaching the Mediterranean coast with summits reaching 2,600 m. At the eastern end on the southern side lies a distinct area known as the Sub-Pyrenees. On the French side the slopes of the main range descend abruptly and there are no foothills except in the Corbières Massif in the northeastern corner of the mountain system; the Pyrenees are older than the Alps: their sediments were first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. Between 100 and 150 million years ago, during the Lower Cretaceous Period, the Bay of Biscay fanned out, pushing present-day Spain against France and applying intense compressional pressure to large layers of sedimentary rock.
The intense pressure and uplifting of the Earth's crust first affected the eastern part and moved progressively to the entire chain, culminating in the Eocene Epoch. The eastern part of the Pyrenees consists of granite and gneissose rocks, while in the western part the granite peaks are flanked by layers of limestone; the massive and unworn character of the chain comes from its abundance of granite, resistant to erosion, as well as weak glacial development. The upper parts of the Pyrenees contain low-relief surfaces forming a peneplain; this peneplain originated no earlier than in Late Miocene times. It formed at height as extensive sedimentation raised the local base
Chordate
A chordate is an animal constituting the phylum Chordata. During some period of their life cycle, chordates possess a notochord, a dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, a post-anal tail: these five anatomical features define this phylum. Chordates are bilaterally symmetric; the Chordata and Ambulacraria together form the superphylum Deuterostomia. Chordates are divided into three subphyla: Vertebrata. There are extinct taxa such as the Vetulicolia. Hemichordata has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but now is treated as a separate phylum: hemichordates and Echinodermata form the Ambulacraria, the sister phylum of the Chordates. Of the more than 65,000 living species of chordates, about half are bony fish that are members of the superclass Osteichthyes. Chordate fossils have been found from as early as the Cambrian explosion, 541 million years ago. Cladistically, vertebrates - chordates with the notochord replaced by a vertebral column during development - are considered to be a subgroup of the clade Craniata, which consists of chordates with a skull.
The Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores. Chordates form a phylum of animals that are defined by having at some stage in their lives all of the following anatomical features: A notochord, a stiff rod of cartilage that extends along the inside of the body. Among the vertebrate sub-group of chordates the notochord develops into the spine, in wholly aquatic species this helps the animal to swim by flexing its tail. A dorsal neural tube. In fish and other vertebrates, this develops into the spinal cord, the main communications trunk of the nervous system. Pharyngeal slits; the pharynx is the part of the throat behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, but in some other chordates they are part of a filter-feeding system that extracts particles of food from the water in which the animals live. Post-anal tail. A muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. An endostyle; this is a groove in the ventral wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus.
It stores iodine, may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland. There are soft constraints that separate chordates from certain other biological lineages, but are not part of the formal definition: All chordates are deuterostomes; this means. All chordates are based on a bilateral body plan. All chordates are coelomates, have a fluid filled body cavity called a coelom with a complete lining called peritoneum derived from mesoderm; the following schema is from the third edition of Vertebrate Palaeontology. The invertebrate chordate classes are from Fishes of the World. While it is structured so as to reflect evolutionary relationships, it retains the traditional ranks used in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylum Chordata †Vetulicolia? Subphylum Cephalochordata – Class Leptocardii Clade Olfactores Subphylum Tunicata – Class Ascidiacea Class Thaliacea Class Appendicularia Class Sorberacea Subphylum Vertebrata Infraphylum incertae sedis Cyclostomata Superclass'Agnatha' paraphyletic Class Myxini Class Petromyzontida or Hyperoartia Class †Conodonta Class †Myllokunmingiida Class †Pteraspidomorphi Class †Thelodonti Class †Anaspida Class †Cephalaspidomorphi Infraphylum Gnathostomata Class †Placodermi Class Chondrichthyes Class †Acanthodii Superclass Osteichthyes Class Actinopterygii Class Sarcopterygii Superclass Tetrapoda Class Amphibia Class Sauropsida Class Synapsida Craniates, one of the three subdivisions of chordates, all have distinct skulls.
They include the hagfish. Michael J. Benton commented that "craniates are characterized by their heads, just as chordates, or all deuterostomes, are by their tails". Most craniates are vertebrates; these consist of a series of bony or cartilaginous cylindrical vertebrae with neural arches that protect the spinal cord, with projections that link the vertebrae. However hagfish have incomplete braincases and no vertebrae, are therefore not regarded as vertebrates, but as members of the craniates, the group from which vertebrates are thought to have evolved; however the cladistic exclusion of hagfish from the vertebrates is controversial, as they ma
New Zealand
New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia and Tonga; because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal and plant life; the country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington. Sometime between 1250 and 1300, Polynesians settled in the islands that were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands.
In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire and in 1907 it became a dominion. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.9 million is of European descent. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration; the official languages are English, Māori, NZ Sign Language, with English being dominant. A developed country, New Zealand ranks in international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, economic freedom. New Zealand underwent major economic changes during the 1980s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy; the service sector dominates the national economy, followed by the industrial sector, agriculture. Nationally, legislative authority is vested in an elected, unicameral Parliament, while executive political power is exercised by the Cabinet, led by the prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
Queen Elizabeth II is the country's monarch and is represented by a governor-general Dame Patsy Reddy. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes; the Realm of New Zealand includes Tokelau. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ASEAN Plus Six, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and named it Staten Land "in honour of the States General", he wrote, "it is possible that this land joins to the Staten Land but it is uncertain", referring to a landmass of the same name at the southern tip of South America, discovered by Jacob Le Maire in 1616. In 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand. Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand.
It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the whole country before the arrival of Europeans, with Aotearoa referring to just the North Island. Māori had several traditional names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North and South. In 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907 this was the accepted norm; the New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised, names and alternative names were formalised in 2013. This set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, South Island or Te Waipounamu. For each island, either its English or Māori name can be used. New Zealand was one of the last major landmasses settled by humans. Radiocarbon dating, evidence of deforestation and mitochondrial DNA variability within Māori populations suggest New Zealand was first settled by Eastern Polynesians between 1250 and 1300, concluding a long series of voyages through the southern Pacific islands.
Over the centuries that followed, these settlers developed a distinct culture now known as Māori. The population was divided into iwi and hapū who would sometimes cooperate, sometimes compete and sometimes fight against each other. At some point a group of Māori migrated to Rēkohu, now known as the Chatham Islands, where they developed their distinct Moriori culture; the Moriori population was all but wiped out between 1835 and 1862 because of Taranaki Māori invasion and enslavement in the 1830s, although European diseases contributed. In 1862 only 101 survived, the last known full-blooded Moriori died in 1933; the first Europeans known to have reached New Zeala
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