Rotorua, 2 September, 2011 – The 1000th kiwi chick to hatch at Rainbow Springs Kiwi Wildlife Park is now even closer with the second chick of the season hatching.

Kiwi Encounter - the park's hatching facility - began the season with only one dozen hatches to go before reaching its 1000th milestone chick as part of the BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust programme. The first chick emerged from its egg last week and the second followed in quick succession at the weekend.

As part of BNZ Operation Nest Egg™ (O.N.E) eggs are gathered from nests to save them from predators and are incubated and cared for at Kiwi Encounter. The kiwis are then returned to the wild when they weigh around a healthy 1 kg.
“The newest arrival is little, but he is cute and strong,” says Emma Bean, Assistant Kiwi Husbandry Manager, Kiwi Encounter.

The 1000th kiwi is expected to hatch during the height of the Rugby World Cup and Rainbow Springs has created a giant kiwi nest filled with 12 rugby balls to celebrate. Each time an egg hatches it is replaced with a toy kiwi signifying the new arrival.
Rainbow Springs has been involved in O.N.E. since 1995 and their involvement began with the arrival of a kiwi egg that had been abandoned. Over the last 16 years O.N.E has gone from strength to strength and is the biggest in New Zealand, successfully incubating and hatching kiwi eggs from around the North Island.

Kiwi Encounter is a working hatchery and nursery and is the only purpose-built kiwi conservation facility open to the public in the world. It is sponsored by the BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust, a charity partnership between BNZ, Department of Conservation and Forest & Bird. Captive breeding programs are also run from the site along with rehabilitation work for birds injured in the wild. More than 100 North Island brown kiwi chicks are successfully hatched each year at Kiwi Encounter.

ENDS

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