Thanks to New Zealand's ancient isolation and lack of mammals, the kiwi evolved to occupy a habitat and lifestyle that elsewhere in the world is occupied by a mammal.  

It means that in many ways the kiwi is a very unbird-like bird. Its skin is tough as shoe-leather, its feathers are like hair, its bones are heavy, its wings end in a cat-like claw and its body temperature is 38° Celcius, lower than most other birds. 

While most birds depend on sight, the kiwi is one of the few birds with a highly developed sense of smell. At night, kiwi can be heard sniffing around in the dark. Alarm them during the day and they run off until, at a distance, they stick their bill in the air, sniffing to see if they are safe from pursuit, just like a wolf or other mammal.

Follow these links to explore some of the ways the kiwi is an amazing honorary mammal and blow some of the myths about kiwi.