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Yes moose were liberated in NZ firstly in 1900 in the area I was raised in on the West Coast of the South Island. These few survivors from 14 calves brought from Vancouver (most died on the boat to NZ) grew to adults but were rather tame and ended up being shot when making nuisances of themselves in local farm gardens.
A second release was done in 1909 at Dusky Sound in Fiordland. These survived and over the years the odd cow or two were shot by hunters and fisherman in the area but three trophy bulls were shot on licence. The last bull shot was in 1952 by Percy Lyes, a well known deer culler and hunter of that era.

My father was a friend of Percy and his family and as a young boy I remember his trophy hanging on the wall of his mother’s small farmhouse cottage. When sitting below it the ‘bell’ used to dangle on your head. The NZ moose never grew heads anywhere near the size they in Canada.

Later in life I spent three weeks in and around Dusky Sound with 7 other hunting friends looking to see if moose still existed. Another avid moose investigator was the late Ray Tinsley who lived close to me and who spent many a year in Fiordland looking for the elusive moose in the 70’s and 80’s. We gleaned as much information from Ray before departing on our hunt in 1977. Some fisherman claimed to have seen and shot moose in Fiordland around those years and into the early 90’s but none of these reports have ever been substantiated by photo’s or reliable witnesses. Ray sent some hair and photos of footprints to Canada and these were confirmed as being from moose. We found some extremely high browsing on trees, higher than any of us have experienced from regions containing red deer or wapiti, but alas no sightings. Our trip was fairly elaborate using a chopper to lift in two alloy boats and we burned up a lot of fuel boating from bay to bay in the huge Dusky Sound area and bush stalking to see what we could find.

For those interested “Call of the Moose” by Ray Tinsley and “The Hunting Tales of Percy Lyes” by Hans Willems and great reads and photos on the subject of red deer, wapiti and moose hunting in NZ.

A few oldies of our venture:

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