The plight of the kiwi is looking up as conservationists boost efforts to save New Zealand’s national bird.
The Forest Restoration Trust has had one of its most successful chick-rearing seasons so far and has now introduced a brand-new kiwi population in the Pohokura forest.
The central North Island forest is the site of our newest kiwi population.
Among that population is six-month-old Zelda who was raised at Rotorua’s National Kiwi Hatchery.
The little kiwi has been tagged so her whereabouts can be monitored and will now join the 37 other kiwi which have been in the forest since March.
Pohokura is owned by the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust and the Trust collects the eggs from the nests in nearby Maungataniwha Forest so they can be incubated and hatched.
This season, 45 of the 64 eggs collected, have resulted in a healthy kiwi – a 73 per cent rate.
Most of the 68,000 kiwi are unmanaged so number continue to decline by roughly 20 a week.
But the goal is to real 100,000 by 2030 so conservation programmes like this one are crucial.
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