Totally Obsessed with Kiwis
The Kiwi is the New Zealand National Symbol, National Bird and synonym for anything from New Zealand. But, contrary to popular belief (OK, my popular belief) they are not running about like pigeons at Trafalgar Square. They are both nocturnal and becoming an endangered species. The name supposedly comes from the call it makes (Kee-weee!), but this doesn't seem too likely after hearing an actual Kiwi call. Click on the player below to hear it for yourself.
Before the arrival of the Polynesians, there were no land mammals in New Zealand and the evolutionary / enviromental niche was filled by birds like the Kiwi. With no real predators in New Zealand, the new arrivals gradually lost the ability to fly over hundreds of generations. When man arrived on the islands, the locals were suddenly under threat. If you need an example as to how vulnerable the Kiwi are to foreign predators, you need only consider the damage done at the Kiwi Reservation in the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. In 1992, a pet dog managed to get into the reservation and in the space of two days killed an estimated 300 birds. With each mating pair producing only one egg per year, this was a huge setback. So, because the national symbol is under threat and unlikely to be seen by the New Zealand public in the wild, the country is dotted with numerous small Kiwi Houses, where locals and tourists can see the bird during the day.
The best of these is the Otorohanga Bird Reserve which is probably the leading Kiwi breeding centre in the country and has four birds on rotating display. This is needed because Kiwis are only awake four hours out of 24 and they hide when they sleep. The birds are kept in pairs in two viewing rooms, one for the morning and one for the afternoon.
The Camcorder proved it's worth again at Otorohanga. No Flash Photography is allowed and it's certainly far too dark for shots without it, even the fastest of films. The Camcorder has a feature that I never thought I'd use - Sony NightShot (TM probably) - which uses an InfraRed bulb below the lens to light up a dark scene so only the camera can see it. It's not quite perfect, even the new machines have a vaguely "Desert Storm" effect when it's really dark, and you have to be careful how you use the light (visible only through the viewfinder) so that it doesn't make like everybody and everything look like extras from Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the IR light reflecting from their eyes.
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This little guy is a common brown male Kiwi, there is a much larger female in the enclosure, but out of range of the IR light. As endangered species go, these guys are the most widely found
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This is "Saxone", one of the very rare Greater Spotted Kiwis, and the only one on display anywhere in the world. His mate is called Russell & Bromley. Probably.
The New Zealand Press have a similar obsession, some choice ones are included below.
New Zealand Herald - 25th Jan 2000.
A good, keen nose for kiwi
By ANGELA GREGORY
They say people often look like their dogs, but a Conservation Department ranger has proved he can even sniff like his dog after detecting two kiwi hidden in a culvert. Tommy Herbert smelled the kiwi while waterblasting culverts along a metal road in the Waipoua Forest. It was one of the rare occasions when his Labrador, Gemma, trained in finding kiwi, was not with him. Mr Herbert stopped the work and saved the kiwi, who were probably mating, from a high-pressure cold shower. He said he had recognised the smell of kiwi excrement.
"It's quite a distinctive earthy smell ... like no other."
Mr Herbert said he had smelled out the birds before but was nowhere near as good as Gemma, whose job was safe.
"She's a thousand times better than me, and the most important dog in Northland."
Mr Herbert downplayed his acute sense of smell, but agreed he was in tune with the bush and had keen observation skills.
He said the conservation and forestry workers with him were impressed when he pulled the kiwi from their roost. Mr Herbert plans to keep his nose out for other possible roosting sites in culverts.
"When you think about it, they're just what kiwi like: Cold and damp, very similar to a hollow log."
The culvert in question was 200m from the department's headquarters on a side road State Highway 12. Our staff must have driven over the kiwi - so to speak - thousands of times."
Waikato Times
Kiwi Chicks Thrive in Haven
ROTORUA Kiwi chicks hatched from a newly discovered Bay of Plenty population have boosted a Department of Conservation programme to save the kiwi.
Operation Nest Egg now has a record 10 chicks at its Rainbow Springs base in Rotorua.
DoC officer Andy Blick discovered the pair while tracking a group of six kiwi in the Whirinaki Forest, 75km south of Rotorua.
In September, he spotted two male kiwi sitting on the two eggs and has been charting their progress ever since.
About 95 per cent of kiwi chicks are killed by stoats or possums if left in the wild, so DoC monitors sitting male kiwi and transfers the eggs to Operation Nest Egg about 20 days before they hatch.
The Rainbow Springs programme now has chicks ranging from six to 33 days old, received from Tongariro, Waimarino Forest near Ohakune and the Whirinaki Forest.
Programme leader Heather McCormick said the team aimed to rear 12 chicks from eggs this year and had already reached 10 only half way through the breeding season.
She hoped that each male that had sat on the eggs would now be minding a second clutch, which would make for an "absolute boomer" season. "It's very exciting because we received 11 fertile eggs and lost only one.
"The high numbers are really encouraging and we feel like we're making a difference when we can release most of them."
Once the chicks grow to 450g they are moved from indoor brooding boxes to an outside run. When they weigh 1.2kg they are considered strong enough to fend for themselves in the wild and released. Because Operation Nest Egg cannot provide live worms and insects for the chicks' 6 to 12 month stay, DoC makes substitutes out of sliced ox heart.
The chicks are at present being fed a mix of porridge, banana, wheatgerm and a mineral and vitamin substance but still shake the food in their beaks to "kill it" before swallowing.
Waikato Times
Millie Meets Wide World
WHANGAREI - The first kiwi chick of the millennium has taken its first steps in the great outdoors. Onlookers described the first move as a scuttle rather than a strut. The bright-eyed youngster, named Millie, was born at 12.10 am on January 1. The chick spent its first night in an outdoor aviary on Thursday before being let loose on Monday for a run on the grass.
Whangarei Native Bird Recovery Centre manager Robert Webb said Millie "acted like she owned the place in the aviary charging up and down. She thinks she's a bit of all right."
Since the chick hatched at 330g, its weight has dropped to 295g, but Mr Webb says that is normal because for the first week kiwi live off their yolk sac. Although he refers to Millie as "she," he said the chick's sex would not be known for about nine months unless a DNA test was done. When Muffle is nine months old, she - or he - will be released back into bush where the egg came from.