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The main challenge today is to save kiwi on the New Zealand mainland, where they have lived for millions of years.
The good news is that research and management teams are increasingly confident about their ability to save kiwi by controlling predators and through Operation Nest Egg. And they now want to increase the role of iwi, private landowners and local communities in protecting kiwi and their habitats.
Below is information about the wide range of actions being carried out to ensure the continued survival of kiwi on the New Zealand mainland, including:
Recovery of Key Mainland Populations
The ultimate aim of Bank of New Zealand Save the Kiwi is that each kiwi taxa will thrive in its natural habitat - on the New Zealand mainland. Some of the successful recovery efforts to-date are described below.
Intensive management by the Department of Conservation of ‘nationally critical’ varieties such as Haast Tokoeka and Rowi.
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For example, extensive predator control in the Okarito Forest, combined with Operation Nest Egg,has seen Rowi numbers increase dramatically since 1996, from about 150 to more than 250 mature birds today. |
New Brown Kiwi populations have been established at Boundary Stream Mainland Island and Bream Head, Whangarei.
Natural kiwi populations have increased at managed sites.
Iwi, communities and conservation agencies have worked together to increase natural populations. Two examples are at Ohope and Lake Waikaremoana.
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Rearing Wild Eggs and Chicks in Captivity
The research into population trends and threats to kiwi made it apparent the birds would need special assistance to reverse the population decline.
So in 1994 the Operation Nest Egg programme was set up. It allows researchers to “buy time” while longer-term solutions to the problems facing kiwi are found. An Operation Nest Egg chick has a 40 per cent chance of survival into adulthood once released back into the wild, up from 5 per cent. Without it some critical populations would soon be extinct.
In January 1998 an international workshop was held at Auckland Zoo to look at issues around captive management of Brown Kiwi. One issue was how to better link this work with the efforts on recovery of kiwi in the wild. This workshop led to the preparation of a new Captive Management Plan for kiwi and an updated husbandry manual.
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Creating Safe Havens
To ensure thriving populations of kiwi on the mainland, a lot of research has been done on the birds’ preferred habitat and threats to their survival.
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The findings have allowed scientists to develop techniques to create safe ‘kiwi zones’ and these techniques are being progressively applied to larger tracts of land. |
In 2000, as part of its funding for the Biodiversity Strategy, the New Zealand Government committed $10-million over five years to set up five kiwi sanctuaries – at Whangarei, Moehau, Tongariro, Okarito and Haast. Since 2005, that funding has become part of the Department of Conservation’s annual budget. The lessons we have learned on predator-free islands and small-scale ‘mainland islands’ are now being applied experimentally to these much greater land areas, and we continue to learn.
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Establishing New Kiwi Populations
Creating new populations is a good insurance policy for kiwi species with low population numbers. One example of this is the Little Spotted Kiwi, which numbers only about 1,600.
Since at least the 1920s, ‘little spots’ have maintained a thriving population on Kapiti Island. But only there. So, to make sure not all ‘little spot’ eggs were in one basket should a disaster strike the island (such as stoats being deliberately or accidentally introduced), some birds from Kapiti have been transferred to other safe places. These include island and mainland sanctuaries like Tiritiri Matangi island in the Hauraki Gulf, and the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington City, on the mainland. These transfers mean the Little Spotted Kiwi population is now regarded as safe.
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Predator Control
Research shows that introduced predators are the main threat to kiwi – particularly stoats, wild cats, dogs and ferrets. About 50 per cent of kiwi eggs fail to hatch – due to bacteria or because the adult is disturbed by predators.
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Of the eggs that do hatch, around 70 per cent of chicks are killed by stoats, and occasionally cats, before they are six months old. |
Only about 5 per cent of chicks make it to adulthood.
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Bank of New Zealand Save the Kiwi has invested in predator control experiments with considerable success at places such as Northland and Waikaremoana. The techniques learnt are then applied to other kiwi areas. The stoat control operation at Okarito is thought to be the largest of its kind in the world – 1,500 tunnels containing one or two traps each cover 11,000-hectares of core kiwi habitat within the 12,000-hectare sanctuary.
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