Moa Sightings, volume 1

Hunting pressure, habitat destruction, and introduced predators led to moa extinction by A.D. 1650 according to the previously held serial overkill model. In the currently accepted rapid blitzkrieg model, all the moas were gone by A.D. 1450, over 300 years before the first Europeans landed in New Zealand with Captain Cook in 1769. However a number of moa sighting claims have been made since 1769 and the author offers for consideration a staggered survival model in which moas lingered on until a later date in some remote, isolated areas. The available circumstantial evidence for a few moas remaining after 1769 is presented including reports suggesting survival in circa 1810 by Kawana Paipai, 1845 by Burr Osborn, 1863 by Patrick Caples, circa 1825 1875 by HJ Cuttance, and 1878 by Sir George Grey.