29 September 2009

Spring has heralded in a significant milestone in the Rimutaka Forest Park, with the first kiwi chick left to hatch naturally in the park being born in September.
“We are ecstatic” said Rimutaka ForestPark Trust spokesperson, Melody McLaughlin. “We have been re-introducing kiwi into the park for the past five years and this is a positive step towards the kiwi becoming a self-sustaining, free-ranging population”.
The chick is a result of a pairing between Waikiwianui and Potiki, both captive bred birds which were released in to the park by the Trust in 2006.
Up until now the Trust has been removing fertile eggs from burrows as part of the BNZ Operation Nest Egg™ programme. The eggs are then incubated and hatched at specialist facilities, with the chicks being raised in predator free environments until they reach a stoat fighting weight of 1200grams, before being re-released in to the park.
With kiwi numbers in the park now at over 30, and the success of the Trust’s predator trapping programme, a decision was made to start leaving some chicks to hatch naturally in the wild. “We will still be using Operation Nest Egg in some instances” said Ms McLaughlin, “In this case we knew the parents of the chick had had previous breeding success and we were confident they could produce live chicks”.
Weighing in at just 265 grams (half a block of butter), the biggest threat to this miniature kiwi, and all kiwi chicks in the wild, is predation from stoats, ferrets, cats, hedgehogs, rats and dogs. To help increase the chances of kiwi surviving in the park the Trust maintains an extensive predator trapping programme, which exceeds best practice guidelines.
At 1200 grams kiwi are able to better defend themselves against predators such as stoats and cats, however dogs remain a significant threat, as evidenced in August with the first suspected dog attack killing an adult kiwi in the park. To reduce the risk of this happening again the Trust runs kiwi avoidance training for pet and hunting dogs, which teaches them to avoid chasing or attacking kiwi in the wild.
To find out about adopting a kiwi in the Rimutaka Forest Park, future Kiwi Avoidance Training plans or to volunteer as a trapper visit our website listed below.

www.rimutakatrust.org.nz

ENDS

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