• Question: How many types of flightless birds are there?

    Asked by Katch to Rupert on 17 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 17 Mar 2017:

      Off the top of my head I honestly don’t know, but there are quite a lot. Most of them live in places where there are no predators from which they need to escape by flying. This is why many birds in New Zealand are flightless. The problem is that when humans came along they brought other animals with them like rats and cats and this has led to some flightless birds going, or nearly going, extinct. Some flightless birds survive very well – penguins are brilliant swimmers.

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