Comments on: Living Moa News

By: DWA

DWA — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:05:18 +0000

I would say this to Mr. Gilroy:

The North Island is the best place to search? How about the South Island (Westland and Fiordland in particular)?

By: DWA

DWA — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:02:22 +0000

This is the most important part of the passage:

————–

“And the only way to find them is to go into the environment, just one, two or three people, and wait quietly.”

“You’ve got to be silent in the bush if you’re going to see anything,” he said.

“New Zealand is my favourite place, there is some pretty inaccessible terrain.”

————–

1. You don’t often hear about cryptos who absolutely understand the only way – other than dumb blind luck – to get conclusive evidence.

2. Just from my experience in the country, surviving moa in NZ, particularly of the smallest species, might be more likely than – OK, at least as likely as – any other cryptid. After all, moa lived all over NZ. And if you’ve been there, “all over” is pretty durn big. As I like to say to people, NZ has the size of Japan and the population of greater metropolitan Washington, DC.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:52:48 +0000

I agree with BOB MICHAELS. Also with KITTENZ. Probably emus, but one CAN hope.

By: dogu4

dogu4 — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:03:30 +0000

I’m no ornithologist, but I have gone down to the Long Gray Cloud on three occasions and hiked around a bit, mostly in the Abel Tasman. Never saw a moa but the second link with the image of a reddish colored flightless bird sure looks like the critter that stole my last bar of soap and my companion’s bra and panties which I tried to recover by crawling through a warren of tunnels in some particularly nasty thorny shrubbery…and there found, like the den of the lions of Tsavo, a hoard of all kinds of stuff.

The culprit was the well known Weka. They are not cryptids but do have some rather bizarre tastes in dry goods and notions. They are incorrigible sneak thieves and despite the annoyance, are a wonderfully sly creature to watch as they wander around looking for the moment you aren’t, and off they go, like some Dickensian pocket-thief.

I’m guessing the Keas are fencing it.

By: things-in-the-woods

things-in-the-woods — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:40:12 +0000

or even misidentified

By: things-in-the-woods

things-in-the-woods — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:39:53 +0000

equally of course, moas could be miss identified as emus…

By: Byron

Byron — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:09:20 +0000

Having lived in New Zealand for many years, I can say that there is little chance one of these animals could go on existing unnoticed. The forests were largely decimated by the Maori and the Europeans and the Moa were hunted to extinction first by the Maoriori and then the Maori. One of the reasons this happened is that the moa tend to follow the same track. So much so in fact, that the original settlers used the track of larger species of moa to build the original roads, some of which are still in existence today. There is the occasional moa claim followed by the hazy photograph, but face it, if the bird still existed, you could simply do what the maori did and follow its trail untill you found it. This is such a well known phenomena that many Kiwi’s simply dismiss moa claims with a chuckle, saying as one man told me, “you can take a picture but can’t follow a trail?” One thing I will concede to this claim is that the remaining rain forested areas of New Zealand are lush. I would spend days tramping through bush I couldn’t see more than a foot or two into. If it is a smaller species of Moa, are people sure they aren’t mistaking the Pukeko or maybe even the occasional kiwi bird who decided to hunt during the day?

By: kittenz

kittenz — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:48:26 +0000

I hope that living moas will be found, but if it is known that there are emus living free in the area, then any tracks or other evidence probably come from them.

By: Bob Michaels

Bob Michaels — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:00:05 +0000

It would be the find of this young century, if the Moa still exists. I hope it turns out to be true.

By: stormwalkernz1

stormwalkernz1 — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:16:38 +0000

As a resident Cryptozoologist in New Zealand, in Hawkes Bay I find Mr Gilroy’s claims a little hard to swallow.

Investigation through my sources have told me as Loren states there are a lot of emus in the area and perhaps the footprints and nests found could be a case of mistaken identity.

The area in which Mr Gilroy intends to search in the Ranges is extensively used by the Department of conservation as a training area, logging area, and used for other environmental activities.

If there were any moa in the area something would have definitely been reported before now.

With emu being resident in the area nothing short of an absolutely clear photo, unblurred would add credence to Mr Gilroy’s claim.

I certainly hope this is not another wild moa chase.

And wish Mr Gilroy all the luck you can get.