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The laughing owl coin is the fourth in the New Zealand Annual Coin series that features extinct species of New Zealand. Around four times the size of its modern day relative the morepork, the laughing owl became extinct around 100 years ago, however it lives on in this specially designed coin.
The laughing owl, so named for its raucous cry of repetitive shrieks, was a common sight in the South Island in the mid 1800’s. These nocturnal predators fed mainly on small frogs, lizards, baby tuatara and larger insects prior to the arrival of humans. Once people arrived on the shores of New Zealand, changes to the landscape and the introduction of new species meant that the rat became the main component of the owls’ diet. However the laughing owl had no defence against predators, and the introduction of stoats and ferrets from the 1880s is believed to have led to its extinction.