Auckland Zoo has announced it will be releasing five healthy teenage kiwis for the first time this afternoon.
The Coromandel Island brown kiwis -- the rarest of the four kinds of brown kiwi -- were collected as eggs from a 2500ha block in Te Mata on the Coromandel Peninsula. They were then incubated and reared by zoo staff before being released onto predator-free Rotoroa Island at around three weeks old.
Now the five kiwis, aged between five months to one year, will return home to Te Mata with some being fitted with transmitters. This will allow them to be tracked and their dispersal monitored.
Auckland Zoo bird keeper Natalie Clark has been involved in the full life cycle of the birds. She says within five months of being on Rotoroa Island the chicks tripled in size.
"It's been an incredible team effort to get to this day, with our Rotoroa colleagues providing a safe home for the birds to flourish," she says.
"As long as holiday makers and Coromandel locals keep their dogs on a lead when they're in kiwi country, we have a chance to save these special birds and see them thrive."
A second kiwi muster will take place next summer to return more kiwis home to the Coromandel.
Newshub.
