Editing Moa (section)

== Relationship with humans ==

===Extinction===
[[File:Giant Haasts eagle attacking New Zealand moa.jpg|thumb|left|[[Haast's eagle]] attacking a moa pair]]
Before the arrival of humans, the moa's only predator was the massive [[Haast's eagle]]. New Zealand had been isolated for 80 million years and had few predators before human arrival, meaning that not only were its ecosystems extremely vulnerable to perturbation by outside species, but also the native species were ill-equipped to cope with human predators.<ref>{{Cite book|title = A Concise History of New Zealand|last = Mein Smith|first = Philippa|publisher = Cambridge University Press|year = 2012|isbn = 978-1107402171|pages = 2, 5–6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title = Naïve birds and noble savages – a review of man-caused prehistoric extinctions of island birds|last1 = Milberg |last2= Tyrberg|first1 = Per |first2= Tommy|date = 1993|journal = Ecography|doi = 10.1111/j.1600-0587.1993.tb00213.x |volume=16 |issue = 3|pages=229–250|bibcode = 1993Ecogr..16..229M }}</ref>  Polynesians arrived sometime before 1300, and all moa genera were soon driven to extinction by hunting and, to a lesser extent, by habitat reduction due to forest clearance. By 1445, all moa had become extinct, along with Haast's eagle, which had relied on them for food. Recent research using [[carbon-14 dating]] of [[midden]]s strongly suggests that the events leading to extinction took less than a hundred years,<ref>Holdaway & Jacomb (2000)</ref> rather than a period of exploitation lasting several hundred years as previously hypothesised.

An expedition in the 1850s under Lieutenant A. Impey reported two emu-like birds on a hillside in the South Island; an 1861 story from the ''Nelson Examiner'' told of three-toed footprints measuring {{convert|36|cm|in|abbr=on}} between [[Tākaka]] and [[Riwaka]] that were found by a surveying party; and finally in 1878, the ''[[Otago Witness]]'' published an additional account from a farmer and his shepherd.<ref name="Fuller"/> An 86-year-old woman, [[Alice Mackenzie (author)|Alice McKenzie]], claimed in 1959 that she had seen a moa in [[Fiordland]] bush in 1887, and again on a Fiordland beach when she was 17 years old. She claimed that her brother had also seen a moa on another occasion.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/soundarchives/feature/alice_mckenzie_and_the_moa|title=Alice McKenzie and the Moa|website=[[Radio New Zealand]] }}</ref>  In childhood, Mackenzie saw a large bird that she believed to be a [[takahē]], but after its rediscovery in the 1940s, she saw a picture of it and concluded that she had seen something else.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=191727%C2%A0 |title = Alice Mackenzie describes seeing a moa and talks about her book, Pioneers of Martins Bay}}</ref>
[[Image:Moa mock hunt.jpg|thumb|upright|An early 20th-century reconstruction of a moa hunt]]
Some authors have speculated that a few ''Megalapteryx didinus'' may have persisted in remote corners of New Zealand until the 18th and even 19th centuries, but this view is not widely accepted.<ref name = "Anderson">Anderson (1989)</ref> Some Māori hunters claimed to be in pursuit of the moa as late as the 1770s; however, these accounts possibly did not refer to the hunting of actual birds as much as a now-lost ritual among South Islanders.<ref>{{cite book | last=Anderson |first=Atholl |author-link=Atholl Anderson |date=1990 |title=Prodigious Birds: Moas and Moa-Hunting in New Zealand |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> [[Whaler]]s and [[Seal hunter|sealers]] recalled seeing monstrous birds along the coast of the South Island, and in the 1820s, a man named George Pauley made an unverified claim of seeing a moa in the Otago region of New Zealand.<ref>Purcell, Rosamond (1999)</ref><ref name="Fuller"/>  Occasional speculation since at least the late 19th century,<ref>Gould, C. (1886)</ref><ref>Heuvelmans, B (1959)</ref> and as recently as 2008,<ref name="autogenerated2" /> has suggested that some moa may still exist, particularly in the wilderness of [[Westland, New Zealand|South Westland]] and [[Fiordland]]. A 1993 report initially interested the Department of Conservation, but the animal in a blurry photograph was identified as a [[red deer]].<ref name="Nickell">{{cite journal|last1=Nickell|first1=Joe |url= https://skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/the_new_zealand_moa_from_extinct_bird_to_cryptid/ |title=The New Zealand Moa: From Extinct Bird to Cryptid|journal=Skeptical Briefs|date=26 May 2017|volume=27|issue= 1|pages=8–9 |publisher=Center for Inquiry}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Nickell|first1=Joe|title=The New Zealand Moa: From Extinct Bird to Cryptid |date=26 May 2017 |work=Skeptical Inquirer |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/the_new_zealand_moa_from_extinct_bird_to_cryptid/ |access-date=12 May 2019}}</ref> [[Cryptozoology|Cryptozoologists]] continue to search for them, but their claims and supporting evidence (such as of purported footprints)<ref name="autogenerated2">Laing, Doug (2008)</ref> have earned little attention from experts and are [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]].<ref name = "Anderson"/>

The rediscovery of the takahē in 1948 after none had been seen since 1898 showed that rare birds can exist undiscovered for a long time. However, the takahē is a much smaller bird than the moa, and was rediscovered after its tracks were identified—yet no reliable evidence of moa tracks has ever been found, and experts still contend that moa survival is extremely unlikely, since they would have to be living unnoticed for over 500 years in a region visited often by hunters and hikers.<ref name="autogenerated2" />

===Surviving remains===
{{multiple image
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|image1=Dinornis1387.jpg
|caption1=Sir [[Richard Owen]] holding the first discovered moa fossil and standing with a ''Dinornis'' skeleton, 1879

|image2=Natural History Museum, London, moa bone fragment.JPG
|caption2=Owen's first bone fragment (first discovered moa fossil)

}}
[[Joel Samuel Polack|Joel Polack]], a trader who lived on the East Coast of the North Island from 1834 to 1837, recorded in 1838 that he had been shown "several large fossil ossifications" found near Mt&nbsp;Hikurangi. He was certain that these were the bones of a species of emu or ostrich, noting that "the Natives add that in times long past they received the traditions that very large birds had existed, but the scarcity of animal food, as well as the easy method of entrapping them, has caused their extermination". Polack further noted that he had received reports from Māori that a "species of [[Struthio]]" still existed in remote parts of the South Island.<ref>Polack, J.S. (1838)</ref><ref>Hill, H. (1913)</ref>

Dieffenbach<ref>Dieffenbach, E. (1843)</ref> also refers to a fossil from the area near Mt Hikurangi, and surmises that it belongs to "a bird, now extinct, called Moa (or Movie) by the natives". 'Movie' is the first transcribed name for the bird.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/8104|title=4. – Moa – Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand|last=Taonga|first=New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu|website=teara.govt.nz|language=en|access-date=4 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Moa : the life and death of New Zealand's legendary bird|last=Berentson, Quinn.|date=2012|publisher=Craig Potton|isbn=978-1877517846|location=Nelson, N.Z.|oclc=819110163}}</ref> In 1839, John W. Harris, a [[Poverty Bay]] flax trader who was a natural-history enthusiast, was given a piece of unusual bone by a Māori who had found it in a river bank. He showed the {{convert|15|cm|in|0|abbr=on}} fragment of bone to his uncle, John Rule, a Sydney surgeon, who sent it to [[Richard Owen]], who at that time was working at the Hunterian Museum at the [[Royal College of Surgeons of England|Royal College of Surgeons]] in London.<ref name="Fuller"/>

Owen puzzled over the fragment for almost four years. He established it was part of the [[femur]] of a big animal, but it was uncharacteristically light and honeycombed. Owen announced to a skeptical scientific community and the world that it was from a giant extinct bird like an [[ostrich]], and named it ''Dinornis''. His deduction was ridiculed in some quarters, but was proved correct with the subsequent discoveries of considerable quantities of moa bones throughout the country, sufficient to reconstruct skeletons of the birds.<ref name="Fuller">Fuller, Errol (1987)</ref> In July 2004, the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] in London placed on display the moa bone fragment Owen had first examined, to celebrate 200 years since his birth, and in memory of Owen as founder of the museum. Since the discovery of the first moa bones in the late 1830s, thousands more have been found. They occur in a range of late [[Quaternary]] and [[Holocene]] [[sedimentary]] deposits, but are most common in three main types of site: [[cave]]s, [[dune]]s, and [[swamp]]s.

Bones are commonly found in caves or ''tomo'' (the Māori word for doline or [[sinkhole]], often used to refer to pitfalls or vertical cave shafts). The two main ways that the moa bones were deposited in such sites were birds that entered the cave to nest or escape bad weather, and subsequently died in the cave and birds that fell into a vertical shaft and were unable to escape. Moa bones (and the bones of other extinct birds) have been found in caves throughout New Zealand, especially in the [[limestone]]/[[marble]] areas of northwest Nelson, [[Karamea]], [[Waitomo]], and [[Te Anau]].

Moa bones and eggshell fragments sometimes occur in active coastal sand dunes, where they may erode from [[paleosol]]s and concentrate in '[[Blowout (geology)|blowouts]]' between dune ridges. Many such moa bones antedate human settlement, although some originate from Māori [[Midden|midden sites]], which frequently occur in dunes near harbours and river mouths (for example the large moa hunter sites at [[Shag River (Otago)|Shag River]], Otago, and [[Wairau Bar]], [[Marlborough Region|Marlborough]]).
{{multiple image
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|image1=Kapua Swamp.jpg
|caption1=An excavation in Kapua Swamp, 1894

|image2=Graveyard 2 a.JPG
|caption2=Palaeontologists working on moa bone deposits in the 'Graveyard', Honeycomb Hill Cave System: This cave is a closed scientific reserve

}}
Densely intermingled moa bones have been encountered in swamps throughout New Zealand. The most well-known example is at [[Pyramid Valley]] in north Canterbury,<ref>Holdaway, Richard & Worthy, Trevor (1997)</ref> where bones from at least 183 individual moa have been excavated, mostly by [[Roger Duff]] of [[Canterbury Museum, Christchurch|Canterbury Museum]].<ref name="DNZB Duff">{{DNZB|Davidson|Janet|5d27|Roger Shepherd Duff}}</ref> Many explanations have been proposed to account for how these deposits formed, ranging from poisonous spring waters to floods and wildfires. However, the currently accepted explanation is that the bones accumulated slowly over thousands of years, from birds that entered the swamps to feed and became trapped in the soft sediment.<ref>Wood, J.R., et al. (2008)</ref>

Many New Zealand and international museums hold moa bone collections. [[Auckland War Memorial Museum]] – Tāmaki Paenga Hira has a significant collection, and in 2018 several moa skeletons were imaged and 3D scanned to make the collections more accessible.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/stories/blog/2018/digitising-moa |title=Digitising moa|accessdate=2 February 2022}}</ref> There is also a major collection in [[Otago Museum]] in [[Dunedin]].

===Feathers and soft tissues===
Several examples of moa remains have been found with soft tissues ([[muscle]], [[skin]], [[feathers]]) preserved through [[desiccation]] after the bird died at a dry site (for example, a cave with a constant dry breeze blowing through it). Most were found in the [[Semi-arid climate|semiarid]] Central Otago region, the driest part of New Zealand, but others are known from outside the Central Otago region. These include:
{{multiple image
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|image1=Emeus crassus neck.jpeg
|caption1=Neck tissue of ''Emeus crassus''

|image2=Moaupland.jpg
|caption2=Holotype head and neck of ''Megalapteryx''

|image3=Animals of the past BHL18007259.jpg
|caption3=Soft tissue attached of several moas

|image4=Megalapteryx specimen NMNZ S400.jpg
|caption4=''Megalapteryx'' dessicated head

|image5=Moa foot.jpg
|caption5=''Megalapteryx'' holotype foot

}}
* Dried muscle on bones of a female ''Dinornis robustus'' found at Tiger Hill in the [[Manuherikia River]] Valley by gold miners in 1864<ref name="Owen">Owen, R. (1879)</ref> (currently held by [[Yorkshire Museum]])
* Several bones of ''Emeus crassus'' with muscle attached, and a row of neck vertebrae with muscle, skin, and feathers collected from Earnscleugh Cave near the town of Alexandra in 1870<ref>Hutton, F.W. & Coughtrey, M. (1875)</ref> (currently held by the [[Otago Museum]])
*An articulated foot of a male ''D. giganteus'' with skin and foot pads preserved, found in a crevice on the Knobby Range in 1874<ref name="Buller">Buller, W.L. (1888)</ref> (currently held by the [[Otago Museum]])
* The type specimen of ''Megalapteryx didinus'' found near [[Queenstown, New Zealand|Queenstown]] in 1878<ref name="Owen" /> (currently held by [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]], London; see photograph of foot on this page)
* The lower leg of ''Pachyornis elephantopus'', with skin and muscle, from the Hector Range in 1884;<ref name="Anderson" /><ref name="Buller" /> (currently held by the Zoology Department, [[Cambridge University]])
* The complete feathered leg of a ''M. didinus'' from [[Old Man Range]] in 1894<ref>Hamilton, A. (1894)</ref> (currently held by the [[Otago Museum]])
* The head of a ''M. didinus'' found near Cromwell sometime before 1949<ref>Vickers-Rich, et al. (1995)</ref> (currently held by [[Te Papa Tongarewa]]).
* A complete foot of ''M. didinus'' found in a cave on [[Mount Owen (New Zealand)|Mount Owen]] near Nelson in the 1980s<ref>Worthy, Trevor (1989)</ref> (currently held by [[Te Papa Tongarewa]])
* A skeleton of ''Anomalopteryx didiformis'' with muscle, skin, and feather bases collected from a cave near [[Te Anau]] in 1980.<ref>Forrest, R.M. (1987)</ref>

[[File:Megalapteryx feathers.jpg|thumb|Preserved feathers of ''Megalapteryx'']]
In addition to these specimens, loose moa feathers have been collected from caves and rock shelters in the southern South Island, and based on these remains, some idea of the moa plumage has been achieved. The preserved leg of ''M. didinus'' from the Old Man Range reveals that this species was feathered right down to the foot. This is likely to have been an adaptation to living in high-altitude, snowy environments, and is also seen in the [[Darwin’s rhea]], which lives in a similar seasonally snowy habitat.<ref name="WH" />

Moa feathers are up to {{convert|23|cm|in|0|abbr=on}} long, and a range of colours has been reported, including reddish-brown, white, yellowish, and purplish.<ref name="WH" /> Dark feathers with white or creamy tips have also been found, and indicate that some moa species may have had plumage with a speckled appearance.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Rawlence | first1 = N.J. | last2 = Wood | first2 = J.R. | last3 = Armstrong | first3 = K.N. | last4 = Cooper | first4 = A. | title = DNA content and distribution in ancient feathers and potential to reconstruct the plumage of extinct avian taxa | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | volume = 276 | issue = 1672 | pages = 3395–3402 | year = 2009 | doi = 10.1098/rspb.2009.0755 | pmid=19570784 | pmc=2817183}}</ref>

===Potential revival===
The creature has frequently been mentioned as [[De-extinction|a potential candidate for revival by cloning]]. Its iconic status, coupled with the facts that it only became extinct a few hundred years ago and that substantial quantities of moa remains exist, mean that it is often listed alongside such creatures as the [[dodo]] as leading candidates for [[de-extinction]].<ref>Le Roux, M., "[http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/scientists-plan-to-resurrect-a-range-of-extinct-animals-using-dna-and-cloning/story-e6freon6-1226626834888?nk=6a30daade715237f987174b18faf3de7 Scientists plan to resurrect a range of extinct animals using DNA and cloning]", ''Courier Mail'', 23 April 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2014.</ref> Preliminary work involving the extraction of [[DNA]] has been undertaken by Japanese geneticist Ankoh Yasuyuki Shirota.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Young | first1 = E | year = 1997 | title = Moa genes could rise from the dead | url = https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15320630-500-moa-genes-could-rise-from-the-dead/ | journal = New Scientist | volume = 153 | issue = 2063 }}</ref><ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20161006091845/http://nzsm.webcentre.co.nz/article452.htm Life in the Old Moa Yet]", ''New Zealand Science Monthly'', February 1997. Retrieved 25 July 2014.</ref>

Interest in the moa's potential for revival was further stirred in mid-2014 when New Zealand Member of Parliament [[Trevor Mallard]] suggested that bringing back some smaller species of moa within 50 years was a viable idea.<ref>O'Brien, T. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140716121910/http://www.3news.co.nz/Mallard-Bring-the-moa-back-to-life-within-50-years/tabid/1607/articleID/350976/Default.aspx Mallard: Bring the moa back to life within 50 years]", ''3news'', 1 July 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014.</ref> The idea was ridiculed by many, but gained support from some natural history experts.<ref>Tohill, M.-J., "[http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/10248028/Expert-supports-Moa-revival-idea Expert supports Moa revival idea]", ''stuff.co.nz'', 9 July 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014.</ref>