"What I said, is true" : moa birds (Dinornithiformes) in the collective Maori memory

Giant moa birds were one of the most spectacular of all New Zealand phenomena. It is assumed that those titanic creatures were completely wiped out by Maori tribes in the 15th-16th centuries. Many authors argue that at the time of European discovery of New Zealand Maori completely lost their recollections of moa. Native traditions however claim the opposite. It is very probable that last Mohicans of those birds survived until the 18th or even the 19th century.