The birth of a kiwi chick has restored hope at one of the country's largest wildlife centres.
The kiwi population in the Pukaha Forest was severely affected during the level 4 lockdown.
One-third of the birds died because traps couldn't be checked.
He doesn't have a proper name yet but a one-week-old chick is the newest addition to Pukaha's Kiwi population.
"He's really quite feisty, yeah, he's one of the feisty ones," says head kiwi ranger Jess Flamy.
Struggling to stand and eating slivers of ox heart, his birth marks the start of a new chapter here
"Yeah it gives me, it gives us hope again," Flamy says. "We've been a bit down, the team."
That's because of a devastating loss during alert level 4. Over the first lockdown earlier this year, six kiwi were killed by ferrets, wiping a third of the population at Pukaha.
Because of the lockdown, traps were left unchecked - cameras in reserve caught predators roaming freely.
"Public enemy number one for kiwi are mustelids and when I say mustelids that's ferrets, stoats and weasels," says trapping contractor John Bissell.
And even feral cats - one caught with two birds of a different species in its mouth within the space of an hour.
This shows just how real the danger is for birds like kiwi.
"We caught 29 ferrets for the whole project inside and outside the reserve for 2019. Going into lockdown in mid-March we were already on 33," Bissell says.
They aren't just counting predators - a recent census identified 12 adult kiwi left in the sanctuary.
Usually staff would spend a night in the bush counting kiwi calls to determine that number - but under lockdown they relied on technology.
Acoustic recorders picked up a male and female calling each other - known as a duet. And a lone male calling out to attract a potential mate.
"We won't give up on them and we're doing our best to get the population back up," Flamy says.
That journey starts with the first steps of this newborn kiwi.
