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Moas were and is extinct flightless birds inhabiting New Zealand, part of the order Dinornithiformes. There were nine species in six genera, ranging from birds the size of turkeys to the 12' Dinornis. Although regarded as extinct since the 14th or 15th Centuries, Maori reports indicate that some species were extant as recently as the 19th Century, and sightings of different-sized moa-like birds continue to this day, principally from South Island.[1][2][3][4]
Sightings[]
1771[]
When meeting a party of Maoris at Wellington, North Island, in 1844, Robert Fitz-Roy spoke to an old man of 85 who claimed to have seen a moa "for the last time" two years before the arrival of Captain Cook (i.e. in or around 1771).[1]
circa 1794[]
Another Maori met by Fitz-Roy at Wellington, Kawana Papai, claimed to have taken part in moa hunts on the Waimate Plains of the South Islands some fifty years earlier. He reported that the birds were rounded up, encircled, and killed with spears - a dangerous task, since the birds were liable to fight back by striking out with their feet.[1]
circa early 1800's[]
Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that, "at the beginning of the nineteenth century," a party of American sailors and sealers claimed to have seen 12' to 15' tall birds running to and from on the coast of South Island's Cloudy Bay, and on the shores of the southwest of the island.[1]
circa 1820's[]
A George Pauley claimed to have seen a bird "20' high" by an unnamed lake in the Otago region of southern South Island in the 1820's. Pauley ran away from the bird.[2]
1823[]
According to Reverend Richard Taylor, a sealer named Meurant discovered moa bones which were still covered with flesh in 1823, at Molyneux Harbor on South Island.[1][5]
circa mid 1800's[]
Sir George Grey, Governor and later Premier of New Zealand, was told in 1868 by a party of Maoris at Preservation Inlet that they had recently killed a small moa which had been captured from a drove of six or seven birds.[1][2]
1861[]
In 1861, Messrs Brunner and Maling of the Survey Office were surveying the ranges between Riwaka and Takaka, South Island, when they discovered the tracks of what appeared to be a very large bird: they followed the trail, but lost it among the scrub and rocks. However, the next morning, they discovered similar tracks. Brunner and Maling described the prints as being 14'' in length, with a spread of 11'' at the points of the three toes. [1][2]
1878[]
In 1878, a number of people reported seeing "a silver-grey bird larger than an emu" with a long neck at a station near Waiau, South Island. A shepherd's dog is said to have chased the bird from a patch of scrub and pursued it for around forty yards before the bird turned on the dog, and scared it off. It then stood for around ten minutes, watching the shepherd and his dog, bending its neck up and down like a swan.[2]
1880[]
A woman named Alice McKenzie claimed to have touched a "big, navy-blue bird" at Martin's Bay, near Milford South, South Island, in 1880, when she was seven years old. When she touched it, it moved to attack her, so she fled home to get her father, who returned and measured the tracks left by the bird, the animal itself having disappeared.[2]
1896[]
Some schoolboys claimed to have seen a bird like a moa cross a road in the Brunner Range, South Island, in 1896.[2]
1963[]
A scientist claimed to have seen a large, moa-like bird in the bush of the North-West Nelson State Forest Part, South Island, in 1963.[2]
1991[]
In May 1991, hiker Jim Straton claimed to have seen an "enormous, dark-coloured bird" 11' high cross a trail in front of him along the Waimakariri River.[2]
1993[]
A trio of hikers including Paddy Freaney claimed to have seen and photographed a small (6' tall) moa in the Craigieburn Range, South Island, on 20 January 1993. Another party of hikers also recorded a moa sighting in the station's log-book in the previous year.[2]
2001[]
Rex Gilroy and Heather Gilroy made plaster casts of three-toed tracks which they discovered in September 2011 in the Te Urewera National Park, North Island. The largest of the tracks was 9' 5'' long.[2]
Theories[]
Folklore[]
The stories of moas given by the Maori of the North Island are far more fanciful than those of the South Island: they described the birds as giant chickens with the faces of men, and believed that preserved moa tracks were actually the footprints of ancient human heroes. This indicates that the Maori of North Island did not coexist with moas, or, if they had, they had forgotten them over several generations.[1]
One suggestion put forward to explain these garbled Maori accounts of moas from North Island is that they were inspired by discoveries of the subfossil bones of extinct moas. However, as Heuvelmans points out, it is unlikely that the Maori would be able to deduce that the bones belonged to a bird, or that the animal had hair-like feathers. Some features of the moa in North Island myth were too accurate to be coincidence, leading Heuvelmans to deduce that the stories had been brought by travellers from South Island.[1]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Heuvelmans, Bernard (1955) On the Track of Unknown Animals, Routledge, ISBN 978-1138977525
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Eberhart, George M. (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1576072835
- ↑ Shuker, Karl P. N. (1995) In Search of Prehistoric Survivors: Do Giant 'Extinct' Creatures Still Exist?, Blandford, ISBN 9780713-724691
- ↑ Mackal, Roy P. (1980) Searching for Hidden Animals: An Inquiry Into Zoological Mysteries, Cadogan Books, ISBN 978-0946313051
- ↑ Best, Elsdon (1942) Forest Lore of the Maori: with Methods of Snaring, Trapping, and Preserving Birds and Rats, Uses of Berries, Roots, Fern-Root, and Forest Products, with Mythological Notes on Origins, Karakia Used Etc.