The giant penguin

​New Zealand has been a land of giants, huge raptors, birds, insects once roamed our islands.
It’s also been a haven for flightless birds, after 60 million years of isolation and due to the lack of land based predators.
And also massive penguins.
The largest penguin in the world is now the Emperor penguin but before that was different types of giant penguin, some about waist high and up to 80kg and others that were up to 350kg that lived in the cold waters of the ocean surrounding us about 60 million years ago.
New discoveries of fossils have meant a better understanding of it, but long ago, three little bones - now held at Te Papa were the first discoveries of giant New Zealand species.
Why they went extinct (when some giants like the moa survived into a modern age) is debated, but they also disappeared about the same time seals began spreading through the area.
Those three bones came from Charles Traill who had been born on November 26, 1826, in the Orkney Island in Scotland and educated in Edinburgh after which he became apprenticed as a lawyer.
In 1849, he struck out for Australia where he took up sheep farming, on to California for the gold rush, a visit to Britain then in 1855 came to New Zealand.
He set up a mercantile firm with a partner but it was ultimately not successful.
While living in Oamaru he made a trip to Foveaux Strait and discovered oyster beds.
He shifted to Stewart Island and bought Ulva Island (now part of the Rakiura National Park).
Charles was postmaster and storekeeper for the area for many years.
It was in 1872 that he was in Fortification, Southland when he found three bones.
They have proved to be from a giant penguin.
Charles became known as a passionate botanist and natural historian. He collected so many shells that were left for museums.
He had married Jessie Buckholz in 1871 and died in 1871 and is buried on the island he loved.