Releasing kiwi

Kiwi are the icons of Aotearoa New Zealand but, like many of the native birds, are in danger from introduced predators.

Since people arrived in the country, kiwi have been under attack. Although they are a taonga (a highly valued treasure) and their feathers were used in the making of kahu kiwi (Māori kiwi feather cloaks) from the 19th Century, the birds are vulnerable when they are young to predation and it is difficult to protect them. 95% of kiwi chicks do not survive their first year in the Paparoa Ranges, the mountains that march up the middle of the West Coast of Te Waipounamu/ The South Island.

There is something that kiwi can do to protect themselves. They are armed with strong legs and sharp talons, easily capable of seeing off predators. The claws are used in battles to defend territory or over mates, and kiwi can kill intruders by kicking and slashing. When they are young they are not strong or big enough to use their weapons to good effect (although baby kiwi do practice high-kicks on each other) but by the time they are one year old, the roroa (Great Spotted Kiwi) are large enough to look after themselves.

Operation Nest Egg (ONE) is a project of the Paparoa Wildlife Trust, a not-for-profit established to support the regeneration and repair of the Paparoa Range area. The organisation started in order to protect whio, the blue duck, another New Zealand native, and with that project handed over to the Department of Conservation, it switched its attention to kiwi. The donation of land to build a “kiwi crèche” has provided a predator-free, fenced-off area of 12 hectares, big enough for young kiwi to roam about in, safe from mammalian predators, and young kiwi are placed here to learn the way to live in the wild. Each year a few are released back into the mountains, once they are big enough to look after themselves, and each year a few eggs from the local – and growing – population are gathered to be sent over to Ōtautahi Christchurch’s Willowbank facility where they are hatched out and the babies raised. Then they are returned to the West Coast for release via the Paparoa Wildlife Trust’s programme at Atarau Sanctuary. As roroa only lay one egg per year it is critical to collect a few of the eggs each breeding season because predation would quickly result in the loss of the younger population that normally would replace the older birds that die off.

This weekend was kiwi release day into the enclosure. A small crowd gathered at the sanctuary on Saturday morning and, after a talk from one of the Wildlife Trust’s members, walked into the predator-free enclosure through the two gates that are designed to keep pests out, and down to a release site. The treed site has been specifically chosen to protect young kiwi from overhead predators like hawks and it has stumps with burrows beneath them where young kiwi can nestle safely. Two kiwi were released, after tagging them with transmitters, by placing them in the entrance to the burrow from where they could get into the deeper section. Watched by the group of all ages, the kiwi were carefully fitted with the transmitters – used to locate them in the reserve in order to monitor their health and wellbeing – and were then shown around the audience for photographs and to allow us to see these amazing creatures close-up. Of course, no touching is allowed, and, because the birds are naturally nocturnal and the releases are in the daylight, it is important to be as quiet as possible so as not to further alarm them.

The gallery below shows some of the photographs from the morning’s release. The sequence is in order – walking down to the release site through the gates, walking about the process of release and showing the receiver for the signals from the transmitters attached to each birds, arrival of the birds in wooden boxes with inner perspectives lids, handling the kiwi for weighing and attaching their transmitter, and showing young and old a bird close-up before release into the burrow.

It was a real privilege to be in attendance to witness the care and attention that is shown to these amazing birds, and yes, there were a few tears shed. With the local population of kiwi thriving and growing, it appears that the work of maintaining this taonga species is working. The call of the kiwi will be heard for a long time yet in the Paparoa Ranges of New Zealand.