Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness-Chapter 761 - 758: The Destruction of an Island

Seagulls, owls, parrots, these were all part of the first Easter Islanders' diet.

In addition, there were rats and seals, because this place is extremely close to Antarctica.

In short, when they first arrived on the island, the diet of these islanders was a mix of meat and vegetables, mainly dolphin meat, which accounted for one third of their food.

The entire societal status was very simple, belonging to the early human development stage of a nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle.

"However, after more than 400 years of worry-free living, when they had cut down much of the forests on the island, they still hadn't realized the severity of the problem. Instead, they felt that leaving these spaces empty was too wasteful. Once physical desires were satisfied, they believed it was time to start pursuing spiritual wealth."

"Thus, the islanders began to use the island's tuff to carve giant statues. The first seven statues, about 10 meters tall, all faced the sea in unity, symbolizing the seven original leaders."

"By then, the population on the island had reached over a thousand, requiring the clearing of more forests, the building of more boats to catch dolphins at sea, and the construction of more houses for people to live in."

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"And ever since the first seven statues were erected, for the first time a form of faith emerged on the island--those statues. As long as people had the strength, they spent it all on building statues."

"The stones needed for the statues were all taken from three extinct volcanoes on the island; tuff, with its soft texture, was somewhat easier to carve."

"There were no metals on the island, the best tools for working were made of obsidian, which could be found everywhere here."

Bi Fang squatted down, rummaged through the bushes for a while, and pulled out a piece of black rock with serrated edges that reflected a dark light, exceptionally sharp.

Surrounding the statues, the island inhabitants were divided into factions, creating statues with different ideologies, and occasionally fighting over food and other resources.

The victorious faction would erect more and larger statues, and sometimes they would even topple the statues of the defeated. Toppling the opponent's statues symbolized absolute victory.

The size of the statues kept growing day by day, much like showing off one's mansions.

Yet, that wasn't the worst of it. The real issue was that the population kept increasing. During the most frenzied period of statue construction, from 1200 to 1500 AD, the population even exceeded 10,000 people.

An island of just over 100 square kilometers obviously struggled to sustain such a population under a society reliant on hunting and gathering.

To make matters worse--or inevitably--the number of palm trees on the island steadily declined.

Palm trees, not being crop plants, grow extremely slowly; taking two years from seed to sprout, and then another 15 years to grow into a tree over 10 meters tall.

They were cut down to build boats, houses, transport statues, burn for warmth, and their seeds were consumed by rats.

By 1650 AD, when the population peaked at 20,000, not a single palm tree was left on Easter Island.

Apart from palm trees, several other tall tree species also disappeared during this period.

The consequences were deadly.

The dolphin meat, upon which people depended for survival, was gone, as there were no trees left to build new boats for deep sea dolphin hunting.

But dolphin meat once made up almost half of the indigenous people's diet.

Most of the island's bird species went extinct, as without forests, birds wouldn't nest here, and the remaining land birds were eaten by the islanders.

The shellfish and snails, once barely considered food, were quickly and completely harvested.

As time went on, the island's inhabitants could only rely entirely on agriculture; previously only a supplement to foraging, but now tubers, bananas, and sweet potatoes replaced the meat they used to consume.

The only stable source of protein was chicken eggs, laid by the descendants of chickens brought by the very first ancestors to land here 1000 years ago. Had chickens not been introduced, after 1500 there might have been no stable protein supply at all.

By this time, the islanders were desperately searching for something to eat.

The rats that had destroyed the palm trees were eaten up, and the food supply plummeted.

Resources are limited!

Escape is impossible!

Everyone wants to survive!

The only thing left was the slaughter over limited resources!

The daily depletion of food and the constant escalation of war led to the toppling of all the stone statues on the island, whether completed or not.

The heads of the statues were knocked off, and the obsidian used to make their eyes was gouged out.

As a result, many of the statues on Easter Island now stand with only their high brow bones, their eye sockets empty.

Accompanying Bi Fang's narration was a flat tone laden with despairing darkness.

Many people shivered uncontrollably, their skin crawling.

"This is kinda... scary."

"What kind of hell on Earth is this?"

"Is this why humans want to explore the universe?"

"Damn, isn't Earth just a big island? It's just larger and has a stronger capacity to recover. If humans don't develop space navigation technology, wouldn't that be like the inhabitants of Easter Island without palm trees to build ships?"

"Another pessimistic day."

"I'm still young, I'm only eighteen, why should I have to think about the future of humanity (sob sob)"

Before everyone's eyes seemed to appear a once vibrant paradise that, due to unrestricted exploitation, saw one species after another collapse, until only humans were left on the entire island, slaughtering one another.

From around 1500, when the forests began to vanish, until 1722 when the first European set foot on the island, over 200 years of food shortages and war caused the population to plummet from 20,000 to just over 2,000.

The islanders were skeletal and gaunt, their social structure completely collapsed.

Even cannibalism began to appear in their food pots.

When the Dutch arrived at Easter Island in 1722, the guide they brought from Tahiti heard a particularly malicious curse: "The flesh of your mother is still stuck between my teeth!"

Bi Fang put the piece of obsidian in his backpack and stood up again.

"The people of Easter Island no longer speak of their past splendor. The worship of those statues is history to them. In the later stages of societal collapse, they started to worship something new, called the Birdman."

On an ordinary day, many in the audience would have laughed at this term, but now, they couldn't muster a laugh no matter how hard they tried.

"Although the island's trees weren't suitable for building large ships, they were more than enough for crafting handicrafts. They carved the figure of the Birdman from a tree called Melaleuca, worshiping the great bird."

The collapse of society meant the islanders could no longer recreate the glory of the towering stone statues; they could only satisfy their inner longing by carving palm-sized Birdman statues.

"Perhaps their motive for worshiping the Birdman was the hope that one day they could grow wings like a bird and flee this 'island of death'."

"By then, their desperation was evident, with many bird-headed human figures carved into the cliffs below the island."