Nine great spotted kiwi moved to Lake Rotoiti a year ago as part of Bank of New Zealand Kiwi Recovery appear to be well at home in their new surroundings.

Department of Conservation St Arnaud staff have this month been catching the kiwi for the first time since they were moved to the Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project area in Nelson Lakes National Park in May last year. Their capture allowed their condition to be checked and their radio transmitters changed.

“We were able to catch seven of the kiwi and they were in overall good condition, some having even put on weight,” said DOC ranger Matt Maitland. “The other two have dropped their radio transmitters making them difficult to find but we’re sure they are still in the Rotoiti forest. We will endeavour to find them over the next month or so.”

A chick that hatched earlier in the year was also not found.

“Although the chick has not been seen, we know one hatched from the egg remains that were found,” said Mr Maitland. ‘We can’t say for certain whether it is alive or dead but it could turn up sometime. We’ll be keeping a lookout for it but great spotted kiwi chicks are known to be elusive.”

Mr Maitland said the department was very pleased at how well the kiwi population was doing.

“Moving the kiwi to Rotoiti was experimental. Great spotted kiwi hadn’t in recent times been moved to set up a new population so we weren’t sure how it would go. But the fact the kiwi have stayed, that they are healthy and that a chick was bred in the first year are all encouraging indications a breeding kiwi population can establish at Rotoiti. We’re hopeful more chicks will be bred in the coming year as the kiwi further adapt to their new home.”

The kiwi-catching team also caught and checked Mohua, a female kiwi that lost part of the tip of her bill in last year’s relocation of the kiwi. Mohua had been released into the Rotoiti area on 5 May this year after being brought back from Massey University’s New Zealand Wildlife Health Centre, sponsored by Shell New Zealand, where her bill had re-grown under the care of vets there.

“Unfortunately, Mohua had lost a considerable amount of weight so Jenny Youl, the Massey University wildlife vet that helped us with the health checks on the kiwi, took her back to the wildlife health centre. She is gaining weight again there.

“We are looking at what the options for her future may be. She had been feeding herself at the wildlife centre before being let go at Rotoiti but she appears currently incapable of sustaining herself in the wild. We will discuss her future with those with an interest in her welfare.”

Five male and four female adult great spotted kiwi/roroa were released into the Rotoiti recovery area after being moved from the Gouland Downs area of Kahurangi National Park. It was a major milestone for the Rotoiti project being the first species returned to the area since the pest control and ecosystem restoration project was launched in 1997. It is also a goal of Bank of New Zealand Kiwi Recovery to increase the number of places in which kiwi live. Bank of New Zealand staff from Nelson and Marlborough took part in the re-capture of the kiwi this month.

Mr Maitland said major change such as translocation could impact upon pair bonds and a nice find in the re-capturing of the kiwi had been finding one pair – a male Te Matau and a female Tai Tapu – still together.

“Tai Tapu and Te Matau had been mates when they were caught at Gouland Downs so it was fantastic to find them still together again a year on at Rotoiti, sheltering together in a hollow log.”

For more information:
DOC Nelson/Marlborough:
Matt Maitland or John Wotherspoon, St Arnaud Area Office. Phone: (03) 521 1806 or Trish Grant, media liaison, (03) 546 3146.

DOC kiwi information:
Paul Jansen - Phone: (04) 471 3236 or 025 410 026

Bank of New Zealand Kiwi Recovery Trust:
Kieron Goodwin, - Phone: (09) 375 1084 or 029 478 4610