The guy mentioned in the article has spent 30 years looking for signs of a moose. The closest was some hair in 2002 (confirmed to be moose hair, but that moose hair found it's way to NZ is not evidence enough for me - plus if there was a moose it probably died of old age by now).

Given antlers were found 50 years+ ago and not a single further antler has been found - despite moose generally shedding antlers annually, well I guess I just find it hard to believe.

The fact that two separate groups of tourists said they saw a moose in the last month or so, and neither took a photo (or even tried to take a photo), that doesn't give me any confidence. If I saw a hippo in the Waikato I'd take a photo.

Call me a sceptic but after the extent of the searching that has been done to date, I'm going to need a picture.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

I'm very much on the same page, pics or it didn't happen. If there really was a moose population, there would be prints, poo, antlers, or some other evidence.

Instead, we have a number of sightings, almost always by people from areas where moose live, but no photos.

And I believe the fact it always seems to be Americans or Canadians is significant, perhaps they're more likely to think moose when they see a shape, rather than a NZer, who would assume it was a deer?