Historic clues in moa bones savoured

BIG FIND: Students Teina Tutaki (left) and Lydia Torr, here with Te Papa vertebrate curator Alan Tennyson and Maori Studies Research Associate Dr Bruce McFadgen, were part of Operation Moa which uncovered hundreds of moa bones just south of Taihape. PHOTO/VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON

The discovery of moa bones near Taihape will shed more light on the historic nature of the extinct bird's numbers and environment near the Central Plateau.

Hundreds of bones were discovered in an old swamp on a farm just south of Taihape this year. A fortnight ago a party from Victoria University of Wellington's Maori studies department spent a weekend excavating the site.

"It's an old swamp. It's been a swamp for thousands of years," Professor Peter Adds said.

The group of about 25 spent three days on site in what was dubbed Operation Moa. It was the first controlled excavation of moa bones since about 1970. "We recovered probably about 80 bones in total and bone fragments," Mr Adds said.

"We've essentially quadrupled the number of moa bones from the volcanic plateau." The bones were from two or three different species and from between 20 and 50 different animals but no whole skeletons had been found.

The bones were sealed beneath a layer of ash from the Taupo eruption meaning they were at least 1800 years old.

Mr Adds said the moa had not had human contact and may have become trapped in the swamp.

"It is a big find." Mr Adds said the bones were currently at Te Papa but some would be returned to local iwi. "It's generated a whole lot of interest." The bones would be studied further.

Whanganui Regional Museum natural history curator Mike Dickison said it sounded a similar environment to the Makirikiri swamp near Wanganui where most of the museum's collection of moa bones was found in the 1930s. "I guess it tells us that the moa population up there was actually very similar to what it was down here almost at the water's edge."

He said the forest would have extended up to the Taihape area. "It would've been a bit more like that Whanganui National Park."

The university group is going back in a few weeks to collect more bones.