Two male kiwi and a female kiwi from the Otorohanga Kiwi House and Rainbow Springs Kiwi Encounter in Rotorua were released into the forest, boosting the population to eight and increasing the potential for offspring.

Around 80 participants at today’s ceremony to welcome the birds were told an egg had been found in the forest this week. It follows the discovery in July of an egg which was subsequently found to be dead.

“There are great hopes that a baby kiwi will soon be produced,” said Masterton mayor Bob Francis, who is spearheading a major community fundraising campaign - Community challenge - to return the dawn chorus to the Pukaha Mount Bruce forest.

Among the audience at today’s event were Carterton School pupils who, in an ‘adopt a kiwi’ initiative, gave the name Manu Tapu (sacred bird) to one of the newest kiwi to be released. Pahiatua School pupils named another Kopa Kopa (forget-me-not). The third, already affectionately known as Riki, has yet to receive his adoptive name.

Department of Conservation acting general manager/conservation policy Peter Lawless applauded the community support behind the Pukaha Mount Bruce restoration project, which made it possible for the reintroduction last December of five North Island brown kiwi. The establishment of this new kiwi population on part of the mainland from where they became extinct well over a century ago, was a first in the history of New Zealand.

“It’s humbling to me to see what the community can do and it’s great to see the schools behind the Community challenge. It is up to the next generation to maintain this effort,” Mr Lawless said.

The Pukaha Restoration Project is a co-operative venture between the Department of Conservation, the National Wildlife Centre Trust, Rangitaane O Wairarapa, Greater Wellington Regional Council and Horizons Regional Council, and has also seen kaka and kokako successfully reintroduced into the forest.

The restoration project is supported by the Bank of New Zealand Kiwi Recovery Trust, the Masterton and Tararua District councils, local Masterton media and a significant number of sponsors. A major community fundraising campaign, the Community challenge - launched in July by Mr Francis, National Wildlife Centre Trust chairman John Bunny and Wairarapa Times-Age advertising manager Matthew Sherry - will culminate in a 12-hour telethon in Masterton on November 6. It is hoped to raise $2 million over five years, allowing the interest to fund the restoration project.

Mr Francis said it was hoped to bring Pukaha Mount Bruce to “a new dimension”, commanding national and international respect with such attractions as a tree top walk, and a “night in the bush”.

DOC national kiwi co-ordinator Paul Jansen said he felt a “prickle on the back of my neck” to think that kiwi had returned to the wild at Pukaha Mount Bruce, where he was once based as a Wildlife Service trainee.

“I would never have thought in my wildest dreams that there would be kiwi running around here.”

The kiwi released into Mount Bruce today were produced from a mixture of four genetically-distinct North Island populations - Bay of Plenty-east coast, Wanganui- Taranaki, Northland and Coromandel.

The captive breeding programme is refocusing its efforts to breed pure lines of these populations that are in need of a boost, Mr Jansen said.

“We are quite comfortable with releasing birds produced from a mixture of the four North Island races into the southern part of the North Island as there is no kiwi species occupying that area.

“Establishing a population from robust diverse genetic stock is a sound approach. We would like to keep the integrity of kiwi populations which currently exist separate to maintain their distinct evolutionary processes.”

“It is an acceptable means of releasing these birds and it must be good for the local community to have kiwi back into their area,” Otorohonga Kiwi House curator Eric Fox said.

“We would all love to have kiwi in our back yard.”

It was a homecoming for Riki, who was hatched in captivity at Mount Bruce in March 1991 and has been living since 1999 at Rainbow Springs.

“The intention was to pair him with one of the females we had on site,” Rainbow Springs kiwi husbandry manager Claire Travers said.

“Sadly, that was never to happen. His potential sweetheart died before he was able to woo her.”

Staff were hoping this “well mannered kiwi” would flourish in the wild at Pukaha, she said.

For more information about the Pukaha Mount Bruce kiwi release please contact:
Derrick Field - Phone: (06) 377 0700.

Mount Bruce website: http://www.mtbruce.govt.nz/