11001-82603 South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus) the artist Theo Schoon's meticulous rendition of the charcoal rock drawings of stylized moa in a limestone rock shelter in the Valley of the Moa, in South Canterbury. Now extinct, this giant bird was widespread in the South Island in the Pleistocene, its range contracted so that in the Holocene it only occurred in mountainous areas, and east of the Southern Alps. Craigmore *
DSC_8101309 South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus) this road sign was a mischievous response to publican Paddy Freaney's 'sighting' of a moa (near his Bealey River Hotel) in 1993, which caused an international media sensation. In reality moa have long been extinct, they were wiped out by polynesian colonists as early as 1500 *
11001-00702 Stout-legged moa (Euryapteryx curtus gravis) skull [S30212] from Paynes Ford, Takaka, of a large extinct flightless bird once abundant in drier climates - typically lowland open forest and coastal sites in the dry eastern regions of both the North and South Islands *