AUCKLAND CITY COUNCIL

MEDIA RELEASE

2 April 2007

Zoo releases 150th kiwi for Operation Nest Egg

Three-week old Auckland Zoo-born kiwi Taepaepaetanga oterangi travels to a new home on Motuora Island today, becoming the 150th kiwi chick to be incubated, hatched, reared and released by the zoo.

While the “overseas trip” to the kiwi creche north of Auckland is a major milestone for this little 430g chick, today marks an even bigger accomplishment for Auckland Zoo. The zoo has been contributing to the Bank of New Zealand Save the Kiwi's Operation Nest Egg programme with partner, the Department of Conservation (DOC), since late 1996, and today achieves a 93 per cent success rate with incubation to final release of kiwi.

Taepaepaetanga oterangi (Taepapepae), whose name refers to the "place where the horizon meets the sky", and "a pinnacle of achievement", is the off-spring of male kiwi Rainbow, who was one of the first eggs received by the zoo in December 1996.

“It’s fantastic to know that over 10 years on, Rainbow is still going so strong,” says the zoo’s New Zealand fauna team leader, Andrew Nelson. “He’s fathered 11 other kiwi through Operation Nest Egg and at least 19 more in the wild in Northland. These chicks are in turn growing up and contributing further to the North Island brown kiwi population. It’s a contribution that illustrates just how effective the programme is, and we're very proud to be a part of it,” says Mr Nelson.

Taepaepae will stay on Motuora until he/she reaches 1200grams in weight (large enough to fend off stoats) before being relocated back to predator-controlled bush north of Whangarei. Another of Rainbow’s off-spring, the 151st kiwi that hatched at the zoo in mid-March, will also soon be released onto Motuora. The island is home to around 40 kiwi at any given time. Zoo-bred kiwi have now also been relocated from Motuora to Tawharanui Regional Park.

Operation Nest Egg involves removing kiwi eggs from the bush to save them from stoats and cats, and having them incubated, hatched and reared at captive facilities to improve kiwi survival rates. Over 800 chicks have been successfully released, with third generation Operation Nest Egg chicks now being released back into the wild.

Minister of Conservation Chris Carter says that the Department of Conservation welcomes conservation partnerships like that with Auckland Zoo. "The zoo’s expertise over the last decade in captive rearing of kiwi has made a huge contribution to DOC's programme to save these feisty, iconic but vulnerable birds."

Bank of New Zealand Save the Kiwi Trust executive director, Michelle Impey, says wild-born kiwi have just a "10 per cent chance of reaching six months, and a less than five per cent chance of reaching adulthood". "But an Operation Nest Egg chick has more than a 40 per cent chance of survival to adulthood once released back the wild – well over the 20 per cent required for a population to increase”.

"We still have a long way to go to reverse the current six per cent decline in kiwi numbers nationally, but everyone can help play a part. Controlling predators like stoats and possums on private land, controlling domestic pets, volunteering time to a restoration project or donating money to the Trust, will all make a difference," says Ms Impey. For more details visit www.savethekiwi.org.nz.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Today’s kiwi release is a part of a larger national programme of kiwi conservation, summarised in the March 2007 publication Saving our kiwi. The publication is available as a pdf file link on http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/news.aspx?id=43002

KIWI FACTS

Once found throughout New Zealand in their millions, kiwi have plummeted to around 78,000

Adult kiwi can live up to 50 years, but due to the dog problem in Northland, the average kiwi life expectancy in this area is just 13 years

Key threats to kiwi are introduced predators – primarily stoats, dogs, cats and ferrets, and loss of habitat

There are five species of kiwi:

– Northland brown kiwi (population 25,000), found in upper two-thirds of North Island

– Little spotted kiwi (population1425), found on Kapiti Island and other small predator-free islands

– Great spotted kiwi (population 17,000), found northwest and South Alps, South Island
– Rowi (population 250) found south Okarito Forest, west coast of the South Island

– Tokoeka - divided into four groups - Haast Tokoeka, Northern Fiordland Tokoeka, Stewart Island Tokoeka and Southern Fiordland Tokoeka

The incubation period for a kiwi is 75 days. In captive facilities, eggs are incubated at between 35.5 and 36.5 degrees Celsius. Eggs are weighed every day and left out of the incubator for one hour to mimic the conditions in the wild - where the male kiwi would leave the nest each day to search for food

The kiwi is a member of the ratite group - which also includes the ostrich, emu, cassowary, tinamous, rheas and the long-extinct moa.

ENDS

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