Conservation milestone for Kiwis – big and small
10 Sep 2008
While big Kiwis are celebrating New Zealand Conservation Week, the country’s smallest and most endangered species - of the feathered kind - are enjoying a momentous occasion.
For the first time in 100 years, little spotted kiwi, New Zealand’s smallest and most endangered kiwi species, have been reintroduced to Fiordland on the South Island’s West Coast. Fourteen of the rare birds travelled 1200km from Kapiti Island, off the western coast of the lower North Island, to start a new life in a place where they once lived in their thousands.
The event masterminded by the Department of Conservation (DoC) was a fitting occurrence in Conservation week (September 7 - 14) which this year offers the public the chance to get up close and personal with New Zealand's native flora and fauna - some of the most unusual and rare in the world.
Kiwi-pukapuka
There are only about 1500 little spotted kiwi or kiwi-pukapuka left.
Weighing in at only about a kilo each, they are the most vulnerable of all kiwi species. Their tiny size, similar to a bantam hen, means the adults as well as the chicks don't stand a chance against predators such as stoats, ferrets and weasels.
The up-side is the kiwis are good breeders and, with the breeding season almost here, it’s hoped that the four pairs in the group will produce some baby chicks.
Safe haven
The well-travelled kiwis are now living on Te Kakahu o Tamatea or Chalky Island. In the last decade DoC has eradicated the island’s stoat population which was responsible for ravaging native birdlife there over the past century.
It's hoped the move will create another safe haven for the birds, and help preserve the species in the far south. DoC is planning to place more kiwis on the island early next year.
Hannah Edmonds, a DoC biodiversity ranger, says once the kiwis are settled on Chalky Island, they can start moving the offspring from the current batch to other islands.
Edmonds reckons they will do brilliantly, just as they did over 100 years ago.
Real Journeys
A South Island tourism company, Real Journeys has sponsored the project which is part of a wider plan - the BNZ Save the Kiwi programme - to increase the number of safe places for kiwi.
Money to fund the kiwi translocation was given by passengers on cruises. The tourism company has been raising money for conservation for the past 10 years.
Kiwi conservation project
The project continues early conservation work that began more than a century ago.
In 1900 Richard Henry, who was caretaker of nearby Resolution Island - the world's first island sanctuary for birds - foresaw the danger to Fiordland’s little spotted kiwis from stoats that were originally introduced to control rabbits.
Henry transferred more than 700 endangered native birds, including kiwi, to safety on Resolution and other islands in Fiordland. Between 1894 and 1900, he monitored and recorded the progress of relocated birds, proving that in the right conditions birds could survive relocation.
Unfortunately the predators also found their way to Resolution Island, and Henry - realising the futility of transferring more birds - moved north to the North Island sanctuary of Kapiti where little spotted kiwi still survived.
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