Australian pursues moa in Hawke's Bay

An Australian is adamant the moa is alive and well in remote North Island bush and aims to prove it with photographic evidence next month.

New South Wales natural science researcher Rex Gilroy says he's closing in on the colony of the presumed-extinct little scrub moa – anomalopteryx didiformis – in the Urewera Ranges.

"I'm convinced the little scrub moa is still alive," he said from his Australia-Pacific Unknown Animals Research Centre at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

"I certainly have evidence of a small colony in the Ureweras. As far as I'm concerned they're definitely out there. "

Gilroy, a cryptozoologist (studies hidden animals), says he discovered 35 separate ground prints on a previous visit in 2001 which suggested a colony of up to 15 birds.

Then in November last year, he discovered evidence of a nest in a rotten, hollowed kauri trunk, and a track through the forest.

He made a cast of the prints which he said matched with the male scrub moa he'd seen in the Auckland Museum.

The male stood at 90cm, noticeably smaller than the female at about 1.5m, Gilroy said.

Gilroy and wife Heather plan to arrive in New Zealand in late February and spend several nights in the Ureweras to stake out the site with a camera "for as long as it takes".

He refuses to reveal the location for fear of an influx of people will scare away the birds, and has turned down an offer from a television crew to accompany him.

"We operate on our own – any larger expedition would create too much noise.

"I'm hoping for something on film but I'd be happy to find more tracks."

Gilroy, 64, 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.

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.

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.

Gilroy is well used to batting away the sceptics and is undeterred.

"The most vocal critics tend to know the least about the subject they're attacking.

"You've got to keep an open mind and search for the evidence." Moa were thought to have become extinct in about 1500.

In the mid-19th century Sir Richard Owen, a noted biologist, anatomist and paleontologist at the British Museum, received a 15cm bone fragment from New Zealand and determined it came from giant extinct bird like an ostrich.

Gilroy also claims to have sighted the presumed-extinct Tasmanian tiger on the Australian mainland, and discovered evidence of the Australian panther, Blue Mountain lion and monitor lizard.

He's also convinced about the existence of the yowie – in his words: "a homo erectus – a tool making, fire making hominid."

- NZPA