The case was in the Kauranga National Park, which is on the South Island of New Zealand, the nature of which we know from the movie trilogy "The Lord of the Rings". At the foot of the marble mountain Owen, in one of the karst caves, professional fans of geological wonders were recruited impressions, it was 1986.
In one of the claustrophobic stone corridors, the researchers of the untrodden ways discovered something that made them remember the footage of all the horror films seen over the years of life. An exciting find was a bunch of strange bones, sometimes covered with coarse thick skin:
Visitors to the cave thought that they were dealing with a certain guest from hell who gave the god or the devil's soul just recently. Therefore, the question was reasonably asked: are not friends and relatives of an unknown monster just walking along the dark galleries? Judging by the found skull and beak in addition, the meeting with them alive did not bode well for the people.
The truth was not terrible - the researchers stumbled into a cave on 3000-year-old antiquity the remains of a very large flightless bird moa, similar to an ostrich. In the absence of obvious natural enemies, moa, weighing up to 250 kilos, could afford to lose even hints of wings.
But three thousand years ago on the islands of New Zealand the ancestors of the present Maori - the aborigines of these distant lands appeared. Meat moa alien savages had to taste, and the last moa was eaten by the natives around 1500 AD.
For 123 years before the described discovery of the bone moa were discovered in another New Zealand cave by a certain James Campbell. Until now, there is a hypothesis that somewhere in the uninhabited areas of New Zealand these birds could have survived. It happens. The search continues.