26. Flightless But Not Defenseless
Elephant birds once lived in Madagascar around 1000-1200 CE before they went extinct from human-related activities in around the 17th Century. People think that they were related to ostriches, but they had more in common with kiwi. Humans eradicated this species by hunting them and eating their eggs. They also used the elephant bird eggshells as bowls.
They were giant flightless birds that stood about 10 feet tall and weighed close to 1,600 pounds. Experts have had a hard time determining the diet of the elephant bird, but they believe it fed on vegetation like leaves, fruit, and shrubs.