THE MOOSE IS OUT THERE . . . SOMEWHERE
9 April 2010
The Southland Times
ONE hundred years on and moose in Fiordland live on - well, according to a South Otago-based moose hunter anyway. Ken Tustin, of Bull Creek, near Milton, is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the release of moose in Fiordland today with a book that details evidence of moose from the area.
The book, A (nearly) complete history of the moose in New Zealand, details encounters with moose in the fiords and the many sightings of the animal by hunters, trampers, fishermen and lighthouse keepers. The biologist had been collecting evidence and stories of moose in New Zealand for about 40 years and the book offered photo and DNA evidence from as recently as 15 years ago, he said.
"It was generally thought that the animals were extinct in the mid-30s but in the early 50s there were a number of individuals that shot and photographed the moose. So what it has is stories of people's sighting or shooting or someone that has seen a skeleton of the moose as proof," he said.
The stories about moose sightings, of which 60 were post-1960, had taken years to put together after tracking people down and then confirming their moose encounter story with a second source, Tustin said. "This book is firstly about moose, but it is also about a social history as it says what each person was doing down in the sounds at the same time."
The book will be in Southland book stores by April 15.
scot.mackay@stl.co.nz
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