1 week Ago
Behind the hills of Wellington city, the Capital Kiwi Project's land spans more than 23,000 hectares. The project has a permit to release 250 birds on the land, and 139 have been released so far. Last year, for what's believed to be the first time in many years, four chicks were born in the wild near the Capital.
Five have hatched so far this Spring, with the Capital Kiwi Project predicting there will be up to 14 by the end of the season. At Terawhiti Station, the Capital Kiwi team track two of the five kiwi chicks born this year. The birds that are monitored wear a transmitter that gives off a radio frequency signal, which Kiwi ranger Jeff Hall tracks with an aerial.
When Hall has narrowed down their general location, trainee kiwi dog Ash then sniffs out the baby bird. Once the bird is found its weight, bill length and condition are carefully checked and recorded, along with its transmitter. Hall said the first chick was a little skinny but at around four weeks old he wasn't surprised.
"Once they've hatched, they absorb the yolk, and now they're learning to feed and fend for themselves in the wild." He was hopeful the chick's condition will improve as it grows. After more trekking through the bush chick number two was located.
This chick is around five weeks old and noticeably bigger. Capital Kiwi founder Paul Ward said the kiwi were most vulnerable between hatching and getting up to a weight where they can defend themselves. He said in areas without pest control between 95-100 percent of those chicks will likely get eaten, with the main perpetrator being stoats.
"Our job to create a safe environment for kiwi is to manage those stoats down to a level where [the kiwi] can hatch and get up to that fighting weight." A tracking tunnel index on the land Capital Kiwi operates in has the level of stoats there at under 5 percent. Halls said they expect these kiwi to grow to 1.
2kg over the next 6-8 months, and at that point they'll be able to defend themselves reasonably well against threats like stoats. Operations manager Peter Kirkman said at that point they'll also remove the transmitter. He said they were working to have enough kiwi to establish a population.
Ward said the kiwi was something most New Zealanders were united over. "If you ask a room of New Zealanders whether we should look after the kiwi, 99 out of 100 of them are gonna say yes, and the one who doesn't probably is gonna get their passport taken off them." He said they were very pleased to have been able to bring the kiwi back to the capital city.
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