Upland Moa Megalapteryx didinus. Original artwork from A Gap in Nature.

1999. Watercolour and gouache on Arches paper, 665 x 880mm, framed, signed and dated by artist.
Last Record: Subfossil, Surviving to about 1500. Distribution: Subalpine and Alpine Habitats, South Island, New Zealand.
The first Maori arrived in Aotearoa, the archipelago now called New Zealand, around 1200 and in the next few centuries all of its eleven species of moa were hunted to extinction. The Upland Moa was probably the last to succumb, both because of its remote and inhospitable habitat, and because of its relatively small size.