Kiwi hatching season draws to close with late egg arrival

Kiwi hatching season draws to close with late egg arrival

Rotorua, 19 May 2015: Concerned that a late season kiwi egg may be abandoned by its father, a local Department of Conservation kiwi ranger has delivered it to Rainbow Spring's Kiwi Encounter for hatching.

The ranger was changing a transmitter on a male kiwi in the Tongariro forest last week and was surprised to find a kiwi egg. Worried that if left in the wild the male kiwi may not return to the nest she decided to take the egg to Kiwi Encounter for incubation and hatching.

Kiwi Encounter Husbandry Manager Claire Travers says, "Sometimes when a kiwi is scared it won't return to incubate the egg, so the best option in this instance was to bring the egg to Kiwi Encounter to hatch."

The egg is estimated to be at 40 days of development and should hatch in 5 weeks. Dad's name is Max and this is his 33rd egg. The chick will be released back to its natural habitat once it reaches a healthy 1kg in weight and has a better chance of surviving in the wild.

The 2014/15 kiwi hatching season has been quite long, beginning on 5 September, with this latest arrival possibly stretching the close of the season out to June.

"As always its been a very rewarding season, the Kiwi Encounter team never tires from nurturing these precious birds and helping ensure that they have a strong start in life so they can survive in the wild," Claire says.

Highlights of the season include:

• Kindara the ginger kiwi

• Cranky the kiwi (named after the New Zealand leg of the Crankworx mountain biking world tour held in Rotorua)

• Whisker who miraculously survived being run over by a digger

• Warkworth primary school fundraising and sponsoring their own kiwi Cuddles

• Travel company AAT Kings sponsoring a kiwi called Kiwi-Sam

• Kiwi Experience travel group, who this year sponsored 3 chicks, including naming the 100th kiwi chick of the season Leslie

• Local backpacker hostel Funky Green Voyager (FGV), who have sponsored kiwi chicks for the last 6 years, naming a kiwi chick Suess, which means Sweet in German

Kiwi Encounter hatched a total of 107 eggs this season, with another 2 still in incubation and one due to hatch any day. A further 3 captive breeding eggs were also hatched during the season.

Rainbow Springs' involvement in kiwi conservation began in 1995 with the arrival of an orphaned egg and the hatchery has grown over the years to become the largest kiwi hatching facility in New Zealand, successfully incubating and hatching brown kiwi eggs from around the North Island.

To donate, or sponsor a kiwi, visit http://www.rainbowsprings.co.nz/donate

ENDS

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