A big thank you to Linwood College in Christchurch who donated $744.30 to Save the Kiwi Trust to help ”Wai”, a rowi named by one of their students who participated in the “Kiwi Forever” programme at Okarito last year. They raised the funds through a mufti day at school.
I have been kept busy for the last couple of weeks organising the building of a predator proof enclosure in Franz Josef.
After all the trouble caused by the New Zealand falcon/karearea on the rowi crèche island of Motuara in previous years, it was decided to build a small enclosure that allowed the birds to ‘harden off’ for about two months before being released onto the island.
The awesome New Zealand falcon/karearea.
In this time the naïve young chicks will get used to feeding for themselves and hopefully come to the realisation that they are nocturnal!
The young chicks used to be released at approximately three weeks of age and the move from captive food to real bugs could take a bit of getting used to. It seemed these young chicks were getting hungry and, no matter if it was day or night, they would head out for a snack, leaving them at the mercy of the hunting falcon.
Rowi chick with transmitter out foraging for food.
This year we held the chicks in a similar enclosure at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve until they were over 600 grams or about two months old before releasing them on Motuara. Since doing this we have had no deaths on Motuara and it seems the young kiwi just need a little bit of time in a safe environment to get the hang of this nightlife.
The work will commence next week and, with a little bit of hard work from some local contractors and the rowi team, we should have a shiny new kiwi school ready for the upcoming breeding season.
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Find out about the actions, research and education programmes helping save kiwi.
Kiwi territories range from 2-to-100 hectares, depending on the species and the location.
