In Search of the Moa

Television (Full Length) – 2002

Narrated by John Bach (Duggan), this documentary investigates the moa — the "tallest bird that ever walked the earth". Nine species of the flightless bird with 'leg bones like those of a horse' flourished in ancient New Zealand but they couldn't survive humans. Animation and puppetry is used to depict the moa in its original environment. The documentary visits Fiordland to investigate a 1993 moa 'sighting' and palaeontologist Trevor Worthy extracts bones from an ancient swamp that claimed hundreds of victims. A farming contractor describes his awe at stumbling across a moa graveyard in a Hawke's Bay cave.

Fiordland's a huge place you know...go for a stroll through the scrub there, see if you get through there — how could anyone say there's no moa around?
– Fiordland local Kevin wouldn't be surprised if there's a moa or two still living in the Fiordland bush