A kiwi chick that hatched early on Christmas Day at Rotorua's Rainbow Springs Nature Park has now been given a Christmassy name following a callout by the park for name suggestions.
The park says after much deliberation they have decided to name the cute kiwi Anahera, which means angel in Te Reo Māori.
Six people suggested the festive name and have all won a Family Day Pass to Rainbow Springs.
"We were overwhelmed with all the awesome name suggestions for our fluffy Christmas Hatch," Rainbow Springs wrote on its Facebook page.
Santa has delivered not one but two cute Kiwis at Rotorua’s Rainbow Springs Kiwi Encounter.
Meanwhile, Anahera is doing great and currently weighs in at 310 grams, which is nearly back to the original hatch weight of 320 grams, the post read.
Kiwi chicks lose weight during their first week as they are utilising their yolk, it pointed out.
"Anahera currently gets weighed daily and you may be lucky enough to see this if you join our Kiwi Encounter Behind the Scenes Tour," the post said.
"We are still waiting on DNA results to discover if Anahera is a boy or a girl!" it added.
A second kiwi chick hatched at Rainbow Springs on Boxing Day, weighing 335.5 grams.
Kiwi Husbandry Manager Emma Bean told 1 NEWS over Christmas that 88 eggs have hatched at Kiwi Encounter this season and the chick that hatched on Boxing Day is their 1,749th Kiwi since opening.
Both chicks would stay at the Kiwi Encounter Brooder Room to grow stronger and after a couple of weeks, they would return to their home grounds of Maungataniwha and Tongariro respectively.
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