For years the New Zealand media has reported claims that Canadian moose may still roam the remote rain forests in the extreme southwest tip of the country.

In 1910, ten moose were brought over from Saskatchewan in the hopes of establishing a population of game for sportsman in New Zealand, a country without indigenous land mammals of its own.

However, the last official sighting — and shooting — of a New Zealand moose was in 1952. Outside of a few alleged sightings in the 1970s and the discovery of some curious droppings, no one has actually seen the mysterious creatures, leading most Kiwis to consider the story a hoax.

That is, until some recent hair samples were sent to Trent’s Wildlife DNA Forensics Lab, where biologist Linsay Weis confirmed two strands produced a “robust” result indicating moose.

Although she can’t confirm the origins of the hair, the results prompted one of the country’s MPs to demand urgent protection for a beloved species long thought to have disappeared.

Source: “Solving New Zealand’s moose mystery” by Brittany Cadence, communications officer for Trent University.