2. (noun) moa - large extinct flightless birds of nine subspecies endemic to Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Titiro ana ngā Pākehā ki te nui o aua takahanga, me te mataratanga o te hīkoinga. Ka mea rātou, he moa pea i roto i ngā awa kōwhatu o taua whenua e noho ana (TH 1/7/1861:4). / The Pākehā looked at the size of those footprints and the length of the strides. They said that there were probably moa living in the rocky valleys of that land.
mate ā-moa
1. (verb) to be exterminated, disappear, lost forever.
Ka pai tonu te kohikohi i ngā kupu pēnei i te wā e whakamahia tonuhia ana, ka tāpiri atu ki ngā kupu e noho mai ana i rō papakupu Māori. Kei tūpono ka ngaro haere i roto i ngā tau, ā, mate ā-moa tonu atu (HM 2/1998:4). / It's quite good collecting words like this when they are still being used and adding them to the words sitting in Māori dictionaries, lest they disappear over the years and are lost forever.
2. (noun) extinction.
Heoi he mea uaua ka kitea ngā taunakitanga mō te mate ā-moa o tētahi manu, kararehe rānei i te mea, iti noa ngā taunakitanga ka tohu nā te aha i mate ai tētahi kararehe (Te Ara 2011). / But proof of extinctions of birds or animals is hard to find, as there is very little evidence as to what killed an animal.
