MOOSE IN SOUTHLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1932, Page 6

MOOSE IN SOUTHLAND

ONE SEEN FAR FROM HERD ANIMAL SURPRISES SETTLERS. EVIDENCE OF HERD’S INCREASE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Invercargill, Last Night. Three young men when looking for cattle on the edge of the bush on Lionel Gait’s property at Papatotara, near Tuatapere, were astonished to see what at first they thought was an exceptionally large deer with peculiar antlers coming towards them across an open swamp. The animal on closer view proved to be a moose, which had evidently wandered a long way from its usual haunts. The moose made for the bush and has not been seen _ since, but Ranger Smith, who was in the vicinity next day, was convinced that the animal was a moose from the description given and from hoof marks he examined. These -were six and a quarter inches long and four and a quarter inches wide. It is stated that the moose was about 40 miles from where the herd is believed to be. It was in 1910 that the Southland Acclimatisation Society released moose in the fiord country. The animals came from the north-eastern coast of America, and from reports received from time to time by the society it was evident that they were finding their new habitat quite congenial. A big increase in the number of tracks seen was reported and at times the animals themselves were observed. . The distinction of securing the first mooso head ever obtained in New Zealand, and possibly in the Southern Hemisphere, was gained by Mr. E. J. Herrick, Hastings, who in 1929 in "company with Mr. J. Muir, Hawea Flat, spent five weeks at the head of Dusky Sound.