A Masterton wildlife centre is mourning the loss of its most famous resident, Manukura, the first pure white kiwi hatched in captivity.
Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre said Manukura passed away peacefully yesterday at 12:50pm, with rangers and vets present. The kiwi was nine years old.
Emily Court, Pūkaha’s general manager, said rangers caring for Manukura noticed she wasn’t eating and was losing weight earlier this month.
She was taken to Wildbase Hospital, a specialist wild animal veterinary practice at Massey University in Palmerston North.
Vets there operated to remove an infertile egg that had become stuck and couldn’t be passed naturally.
“More surgery was then required to remove her oviduct and most of her left ovary,” Court said.
“The surgeries went well but were not enough to save the ailing kiwi, whose health continued to deteriorate in the weeks following the operation.”
Court said it was one of the saddest days the wildlife centre had experienced.
“Manukura is very much a part of the Pūkaha family and we have always felt so blessed to have Manukura to help us to tell the Aotearoa’s conservation story,” she said.
“The incredible team at Wildbase did everything in their power to save her but it was her time to go.”
The rare white kiwi was hatched in May 2011. Manukura wasn’t an albino, but inherited the rare genetic trait from her parents, both North Island brown kiwis from Little Barrier Island.
Manukura was born at the Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre, with staff at the time not knowing she was white until she hatched. She was the first of three white kiwi that went on to be hatched at the wildlife centre during the 2011-2012 breeding seasons.
Local iwi Rangitāne o Wairarapa bestowed her the name Manukura, meaning “of chiefly status”, seeing her as a unifying symbol.
“She went on to become a beloved friend and taonga (treasure) to hundreds of thousands of guests from Aotearoa and across the world, that visited the wildlife centre throughout the course of her nine-and-a-half-year lifetime.
“Her popularity with the public spawned a Facebook page, soft toys, children’s books and other memorabilia in her likeness.”
Manukura is survived by her younger brother Mapuna, who is currently part of Pūkaha’s captive breeding programme.
She was the subject of children's author Joy Cowley’s book Manukura, The White Kiwi .
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