Aussie pair on little moa's trail

Australian moa-hunters Rex and Heather Gilroy are heading back to New Zealand next month to track down the little scrub moa they are sure is not extinct.

The two cryptozoologists, who run the Australasian Cryptozoological Research Centre in Katoomba, New South Wales, were in New Zealand in November to try to prove that moa still lived in the deepest, darkest New Zealand bush.

Rex Gilroy said their visit to several South Island locations had not turned up any evidence of New Zealand's giant flightless birds, generally believed to be extinct.

However, their earlier research on the existence of the little scrub moa, anomalopteryx didiformis, in the Urewera Ranges, had been backed up by finding what they said were footprints this time.

"We found tracks of the little scrub moa in the site I'd found on the previous trip in 2001. Of course the location is in pretty remote country, and we need to have more time to investigate.

"I've got plaster casts of the tracks, but we're hoping to find more than just casts. If I can get something on film, that would be tremendous."

The Gilroys believed a small colony of the birds had survived and that the tracks were made by a couple of birds. The male was thought to be about 90cm tall and the female 1.5m tall.

They funded their own research, he said.

"We're not financed by any organisation. It's my own personal interest and determination to prove some of these creatures might still survive.

"We need to ensure there is legislation to protect them, as officially they are on the extinct list.

"But that doesn't stop the curious and others who would disrupt their habitats."