--- title: Giants people saw: Steller's sea cow, Haast's eagle, giant lemurs and elephant birds — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Giants people saw: Steller's sea cow, Haast's eagle, giant lemurs and elephant birds», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: In 1741 sailors stranded on cold islands in the far north Pacific saw huge gentle ani --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Giants people saw: Steller's sea cow,… # Giants people saw: Steller's sea cow, Haast's eagle, giant lemurs and elephant birds Lesson 386 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/0/) — In 1741 sailors stranded on cold islands in the far north Pacific saw huge gentle animals grazing on kelp near the shore, up to about eight metres long. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/1/) — They were Steller's sea cows, and only about 27 years later they were all gone. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/2/) — Islands often had giants that no one else had: Haast's eagle hunting moa in New Zealand, giant lemurs and elephant birds in Madagascar. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/4/) — They were big and slow, had few babies, and could not recover when people hunted them, brought rats and dogs and cut the forests. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/5/) — People saw these giants with their own eyes, and some old stories, like the Māori stories of a huge bird called Pouakai, may remember them. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/6/) — Today people try to protect island animals like the kakapo with guards and predator-free islands, so the same thing does not happen again. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/7/) — Steller's sea cow was found in 1741 near islands in the far north Pacific, was up to about eight metres long and ate kelp. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/8/) — The sea cow could not dive deep and was too slow to escape, and hunters killed them all within about 27 years. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/9/) — Steller's sea cow had no teeth; hard rough plates in its mouth crushed soft seaweed, and its living relatives are the manatee and the dugong. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/10/) — Haast's eagle of New Zealand was the biggest eagle known; it hunted moa, giant flightless birds much heavier than itself, with claws as big as a tiger's. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/11/) — Haast's eagle died out about 600 years ago, soon after people hunted the moa away. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/12/) — Many people think Māori stories of a huge bird called Pouakai remember Haast's eagle; stories can keep real memories but also change as they are retold. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/13/) — Madagascar had giant lemurs, some as heavy as a grown man or heavier, and some hung upside down in trees like sloths. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/14/) — Elephant birds of Madagascar were taller than a grown-up, much heavier than an ostrich, could not fly and died out roughly a thousand years ago. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/15/) — One elephant bird egg could hold about as much as 150 chicken eggs, and pieces of its thick shell are still found on beaches and dunes. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/16/) — Moa had three forward toes and a small back toe, while an ostrich has only two toes on each foot, the fewest of any bird. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/17/) — Island giants often had no fear of people, and hunting, new animals like rats and dogs and cut forests hit them all together. - ← previous: [Ice Age Ukraine and Europe: cave bears, cave lions, the Siberian unicorn and mammoth-bone houses](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/385-ice-age-ukraine-and-europe-cave-bears-cave-lions-the-siberian-unicorn-and-mammoth-bone-houses/) - next →: [Clever primates: tool-using chimps, Kanzi the bonobo and Ayumu's memory](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/387-clever-primates-tool-using-chimps-kanzi-the-bonobo-and-ayumu-s-memory/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)