The video is called New Zealand's Fiordland Moose: Mystery or History. It's narrated by Ken Tustin of the New Zealand Wildlife Trust, who has spent 40 years researching the animal's existence in the steep, thick, wet bushland. Though he's never actually seen a moose in New Zealand, he makes a convincing case that at least a small population still roams this remote area. The DVD may be purchased at www.stealthfilms.co.nz. Incidentally, the trail cameras used to try to document the existence of moose show some pretty good red deer stagscertainly large enough to count as a "trophy," considering the difficulty of the terrain here. The red deer were heavily hunted by helicopter commercial culling operations a number of years ago, but the herds seem to have rebounded.
Speaking of hunting . . . the video makes it clear that the red deer herd in the area need thinning, and that mooseif they existare not protected. Morton tells us that hunting is allowed, but, "This area is jungle country, just so southerly storm prone, so wet, so sandfly (biting insect) infested, so steep, and so lacking in open clearings that hunting here would be a miserable affair. These reasons help explain why no moose have been seen or shot in years, if they do even exist. As to the red deer, there is the odd good royal, but it is the odd one. Antler quality is not very good. The pics you see in the video are probably all the same stag. All those pictures taken with trail cameras were taken on the very few clear areas. Even Tustin was amazed how many deer were shown in those trail cam photos, as, on foot in the thick bush, he saw very........(continued)
