Elephant bird to carry off large primates; today, lemurs still retain a fear of aerial predators such as these. Another might be the perception of ratites retaining neotenic features and thus being mistaken for enormous chicks of a presumably more massive bird. The ancient Malagasy name for the bird is vorompatra, meaning "bird of the Ampatres". The Ampatres are today known as the Androy region of southern Madagascar. Like the ostrich, rhea, cassowary, emu, kiwi and extinct moa, "Mullerornis" and "Aepyornis" were ratites; they could not fly, and their breast bones had no keel. Because Madagascar and Africa separated before the ratite
Bird Island, Falkland Islands any offshore island around the Falklands, possibly due to the very large population of thin-billed prions, an important prey species. Deep Tussac cover over most of Bird Island makes it comparable to Beauchene Island for the density of burrowing petrels. Other species that should be investigated include sooty shearwater, grey-backed storm petrel, which is thought to be numerous, rock shag, imperial shag and dolphin gull. Endemic races present include the dark-faced ground-tyrant, Falkland thrush, long-tailed meadowlark and common diving petrel. Bird Island, Falkland Islands Bird Island () is one of the Falkland Islands. It lies due south of West Falkland,