Linkage

Many think it's a llama

That photo has to the worst photo of all time ever!!!!!
I don't think it is a moa no.

This is a joke, right? There's no reason for that picture to be so out of focus. The camera man could have caught the birds they were so close, especially as one was ex SAS (which apparently makes him credible, as trained killers always tell the truth), hell, he could have peed on them.
The things that I like about the write-up:
The way the debunker was tracked down (by a trained killer, remember) and retracted his statement.
The fact that, and I'm being horribly, horribly cynical here, the guy who took the photo owns a local hotel, which might possibly have benefitted from some visiting cryptozoologists, hunters and media attention.

Isn't anyone else fed up of the ubiquity of these blurry, ink-blot like pictures of cryptids?

It could be anything, but I vote for a hen.

I don't think it's even a real photo! Photographers don't take shots like that, and if he did, I'm pretty sure he would be dissapointed in himself. How convenient to how a blurry picture of such a important find, from a photographer and even if we wasn't, how can you see better than the picture you took. I thought a lense/scope would magnitfy something like that.

The Photo's just to bad to tell what it is suppose to be really, I hate when they post picture's like that and say. "look what i might have found"".. Come on if your going to open a web site and post a picture you need to post a clear photo other wise people are going to call it a fake.......

I agree it is a poor quality photo.. however please don't refer to the Ex Members of the SAS as trained killers, it offends me... and until you actually know what you are talking about and understood the role of the SAS and other SF Units keep your trained killer comments to yourself.

i don't know if it's a moa or a llama.... but i know one things for sure.. it tastes like chicken<333

Way to blurry to tell.

Is there anyone from NZ on here, what's the South Island like? Is there a chance that Moas may have survived in an isolated pocket?

I don't think it's a moa probably a quil looks about the right size.

The poor Moa, went extinct like the Dodo and the Great Auk. When wil man see the error of their ways!

Most likely when we kill ourselves off.

If you're ex-special forces, weren't you trained to kill people? I've heard that occasionally comes in handy in combat situations.

I wasn't trying to slight the SAS or offend anyone, I was making a joke. Just because I said the SAS are trained killers, don't assume I was saying that's all they were. The comment was intended to make a point about the write-up in the link in a hopefully entertaining way. It was not intended as an attack on the British special forces. You should be able to tell the difference. I am aware of the history of the SAS and their role in various conflicts around the world and I have respect for them and grateful for their existance, yet I will still occasionally make a joke involving them, as I might about, say, nuns, ninjas or Genghis Kahn. It means nothing.

This is clearly a sensitive subject for you, but you shouldn't go on the attack about a throw-away gag.

PS, please don't kill me for this

The photo looks like a very fuzzy image of a dark object that is shaped vaguely like a moa.

That's all about all I can say.

I am from canterbury, NZ and at the time that photo was released , it was widely considered fake, mainly becauce of it source..Mr paddy frenny. He was (and probably still is a local publician) and real kiwi character....(which means born story teller)... I actually met paddy a couple of times and he was a great laugh, and also a real mountain man, hunter , mountain guide, tramper. soo.. bad photo aside he was unlikely to mistake a deer for anything.
As for the moa..well the maori's and later settlers did a good job of wiping them out....however like the bigfoot it is possible that somewhere deep in the southern beech forests there might be some... there were in fact several species..including a mini moa.
A few years ago a hunter deep in the sounds reported seeing a moose... (not a native of NZ) .

Photo of Otira gorge...west coast.....moa country

Xsas, I think the point was a "trained killer" like any specially trained commando type should be a little more able to get a clear photo, or closer to the critter in question. No harm meant I'm sure.

As for the critter picture...yeesh. I kinda see four legs in there too. Any one else? Too blurry for any real analysis I'm afraid.

Why are pictures always blurry?

I suppose if there weren't, things wouldn't be a mystery.

It'd be nice with surviving moas. I've always liked moas. But -- that picture just reeks of fake with that poor qualitity; and the story is suspicious too, the people seemed to dead-on sure that it was a moa, which sort of detracts from their credibility in my eyes.

As stated previously. Photo quality too poor to tell anything.

As far as I know, the Europeans brought some mooses to NZ in order to be able to hunt them, because there was no big game there and the hunters got bored.

The plural of moose is meese, not mooses. Sheesh, get it right!

Anyhow that could by my uncle DeWayne as far as I can tell. That picture just made my eyes hurt.

Don't you know? All cryptids come with a built-in EMP device that automatically renders photographs useless, and the photographer itself utterly stupid! Well known fact.


I think it's probably a Kiwi... Last I heard you sometimes get them in New Zealand.



Oh, and for the record. The SAS is probably the best special forces team in the world, mainly because they actually get training...

Could it be that the pic was actually a Casowary or rhea?

I dunno about a cassowary- the neck seems a bit too short for one of them. I still think a kiwi.


Cassowary


Kiwi.

Could be a cassowary though I suppose. Or possibly some kind of fowl, like guinnea fowl or something.

I also noticed someone mentioned Llama.

Saard,
XSAS politely explained that your comments were offensive to him and yet you are persisting with them. Your actions could be considered flame baiting so I suggest you stop.

Now can we all get back on topic please?

I see front legs so i vote for llama

Ok, back on topic;
I think it looks like three Kiwis.
The brown one at the front, drinking, a darker one slightly behind it and a third to the left.

No cassowarys in NZ and lamas aren't farmed in that part of NZ either.As that area is a popular tramping and hunting spot it is unlikely an moa are there, as they would have been rediscovered by now.

Good that you explained this to us!

The pic IS very bad ..... very .....
What I see is a black chicken which got its butt stuck in a pink paint can.
Reminds me of those pictures the doctors at the dilly ward show their patients ...... ... just in colour.

~*~

Im going to go with none of the above so far.

If I had to put $$ on it I would say its a Weka

Good point, it could well be a weka. Do wekas not dwell near water though, like most other Rallidae? But since the weka is still alive and well in NZ (mostly), I guess it's probably prime candidate.