Captive Management

Part of the answer is caring for kiwi in captivity. Captive management allows us to expand our scientific knowledge of the birds, and enables skills to be developed in captive husbandry. One component, BNZ Operation Nest Egg™, is also a valuable tool in helping at risk populations increase, and provides a great opportunity to advocate for kiwi and their conservation.

While captive breeding has almost always been with brown kiwi, many of the skills and techniques developed can be used for more threatened species.

Offspring from captive breeding are mainly used in existing or new captive programmes, although a few have been released into the wild. One example is the community-based kiwi project in Rimutaka Forest Park, near Wellington, where birds captive bred at Pukaha Mount Bruce have been released.

Best practices

In January 1998, an international workshop at Auckland Zoo looked at the captive management of brown kiwi and how to better link this work with efforts to protect kiwi in the wild.  The workshop led to a captive management plan for kiwi being developed, and an updated husbandry manual. The husbandry manual contains many of the best practices for holding captive brown kiwi that have been developed over the years.

Our knowledge of husbandry techniques are improving all the time.