After nine months of referring to Moana as a girl, it can now be confirmed that Moana is ... a BOY!

Matt Rayner, Curator Land Vertebrates at Auckland Museum, sent one of Moana’s feathers to Massey University’s Equine Parentage and Animal Genetic Services Centre for sexing. The result has finally laid to rest the great discussion, is Moana a girl or a boy?

A regurgitation pellet from Moana was found directly below her favourite roosting spot on a stairway railing and building uplight on the south-east corner of Auckland Museum. In the interests of science, and of course curiosity, John Early, @john_early Curator Entomology at Auckland Museum, very kindly agreed to examine the pellet under a microscope and reveal what Moana eats for dinner. The evidence also gave us some insight in to where Moana goes when she's not posing for tourist cameras at the museum!

Here’s what John found:

“In addition to the American cockroach, (not photographed), I found the following:

Phyllotocus macleayi – she had eaten a number of these scarab beetles which are abundant in the grass around Orakei and Okahu Bay but also spreading further afield in Auckland now. The photo of their heads shows 8 individuals. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/5248475

Weevils – one photo shows the heads of two very different species of weevils, one with a long curved slender snout, the other with a short, broad snout. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/5248480

Austrohelice crassa – the common mud crab. Identified by Wilma Blom, @wmblom Curator Marine Invertebrates. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/5248491

There were a few other bits which I couldn’t identify with certainty.

The regurgitation pellet was bound together with mud, an occupational hazard when you eat crabs, and there was a lot of fibrous material in it, including a few strands which looked like human hair.”