Aotearoa's National Kiwi Hatchery this morning welcomed it's 2000th kiwi bird.
The moment the baby bird was born, shortly after 1am, was livestreamed by the hatchery in Taranaki.
National Kiwi Hatchery spokesperson Helen McCormick said the hatching went well and the chick was "doing great, finding its feet and starting to fluff up nicely".
The chick will stay at the hatchery for a few weeks before being released to Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari where it will help to grow a founder population of kiwi. Its chicks will then be taken back to their home forest in Taranaki.
"We’ve come a long way," Ms McCormick added. "In our first year back in 1995 we received just one kiwi egg, now we hatch over 130 chicks a year and are hatching the grandchildren of some of those early chicks."
She said the work at the hatchery was important because only five of every 100 kiwi eggs laid in burrows in the wild make it to adulthood.
"By hatching the kiwi eggs in safety at the National Kiwi Hatchery and releasing them back into the wild when they are 1kg and strong enough to defend themselves against predators, their survival rate increases to 65 per cent," Ms McCormick said.
The National Kiwi Hatchery is hosted at Rainbow Springs Nature Park in Rotorua, one of 14 businesses owned by Ngāi Tahu Tourism.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Kaiwhakahaere's Lisa Tumahai said the iwi was incredibly proud of the work being done by many to protect New Zealand's national bird.
"The arrival of the 2000 th kiwi chick is a milestone worth celebrating, not just for Ngāi Tahu Tourism and its National Kiwi Hatchery, but for all New Zealanders who are involved in conservation mahi to help protect this precious taonga for generations to come," Ms Tumahai said.
In the 2018/19 season, the hatchery released 145 kiwi chicks, this included kiwi that were taken to the hatchery as eggs, as well as chicks that had hatched in the wild and spent time at the hatchery. It was a nine per cent increase from the 133 chicks released in the previous season.
So far this season 74 chicks have hatched. Hatching season usually starts in October and ends in March/April.
The 2000 th chick born today will be named by the winner of Rainbow Springs’ competition, which will be drawn on social media today.
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