New Zealand's giant moa may not be extinct
11 Jan 2008
A science researcher is convinced New Zealand’s extinct Moa birds are alive and living in bush in the middle of the North Island.
Natural science researcher Rex Gilroy, is willing to camp out in the remote Urewera Ranges for as long as it takes to prove he is right.
64 year old Gilroy, a cryptozoologist (studies hidden animals) has discovered 35 separate ground prints and believes this suggests a colony of up to 15 little scrub moa - amomalopteryx didiformis.
''I'm convinced the little scrub moa is still alive. I certainly have evidence of a small colony in the Ureweras,'' says Gilroy.
Endemic to New Zealand, Moas were thought to have become extinct around 1500. They were one of the biggest birds ever known in the world, with species ranging in size from half a metre to three metres tall.
Gilroy who is based at the Australia-Pacific Unknown Animals Research Centre, west of Sydney discovered evidence of a nest in a rotten, hollowed kauri trunk and a track through the forest in November 2007. He made a cast of the prints which he matched with the male scrub moa he’d seen in the Auckland Museum. The males of the species stood 90 centimeters tall, notably smaller than the female at about 1.5 metres.
Gilroy and his wife Heather plan to return to New Zealand in late February. Undeterred by skeptics, the couple will camp out in the Ureweras until they can get photographic evidence of the birds’ existence. They refuse to reveal the exact location for fear there may be an influx of people who will scare away the birds.
Gilroy has made eight separate research trips to New Zealand since 1980, when he discovered a lower leg bone of a moa in the far north. His fascination with moa stretches back nearly 50 years and he is writing a book about them which he hopes to release later this year.
After the Ureweras expedition he plans to visit eight more sites throughout the South Island, from the Abel Tasman National Park to Lake Te Anau, to investigate other moa sightings.
Background
Moas were large flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The Giant Moa was one of the biggest birds ever known, at three metres tall, weighting around 250 kilograms. The smallest moa species was slightly bigger than a turkey and stood half a metre tall. Their earliest fossils date from the upper Miocene era, approximately 15 million years.
Moas had huge skeletons with small, broad, flattened skulls, short bills, and no wings. In New Zealand, moas took the place of absent grazing and browsing mammals, and fed mainly on grass, leaves, and fruits.
Moa were hunted by Haast's Eagle, the world's largest eagle, which is also now extinct. The extinction of the moa species is generally attributed to hunting and forest clearance by Māori, who used moas for food, their bones for implements and ornaments; the eggs were used for water bottles.
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