Otanewainuku Trust's kiwi team leader Dave Brown and Zespri's Amy Porter with escape artist Sonny. Photo / Supplied
Otanewainuku Trust's kiwi team leader Dave Brown and Zespri's Amy Porter with escape artist Sonny. Photo / Supplied
Sandra Conchie
Two adult kiwi have been released into Ōtanewainuku Forest, helping boost the forest's slowly-growing population of the native birds.
The newest residents, a male named Sonny and female called Matariki, have taken the North Island brown kiwi population at the forest to 23, which includes eight breeding pair.
Thanks to the efforts of Ōtanewainuku Kiwi Trust volunteers and the expertise of the Department of Conservation kiwi numbers at the forest have been slowly growing.
Ōtanewainuku's kiwi manager Dave Brown said the two new kiwi were released into the forest in mid-July.
The birds appeared to be keen explorers and had wandered away more than once.
"Sonny has done a runner three times and he was located in the Mangatoi Gully, about 300m from where he was first released, and the adult female Matariki escaped twice.
"Matariki was found some distance away near the Otawa Trig Track. Both birds have been reintroduced to the forest."
Sheryl Petersen from the Otanewainuku Kiwi Trust holding adult female kiwi named Matariki . Photo / Supplied
Brown said the kiwi population in Ōtanewainuku was thriving.
"We're happy we have a good, strong, core population set up with transmitters, and currently we have two or three male kiwis potentially sitting on eggs," he said.
"Males usually sit on two eggs at a time so there is a strong possibility we could have some viable eggs, but last year out of 12 eggs we got three chicks."
The trust's acting chairman Bruce Fraser said keeping predators at bay in Ōtanewainuku took a lot of hard work and dedication.
Fraser said a network of ferret bait traps were being laid around the whole of perimeter of Ōtanewainuku which, once the programme was completed, would form a "ring of steel".
"Ferrets pose a major threat as they can kill strong healthy adult birds, and these traps can also catch stoats," he said.
These kiwi are part of the Operation Nest Egg programme, in which chicks spend their early days at the Kiwi Encounter hatchery in Rotorua.
Once they reach 1kg in weight, they are relocated to a Waikato creche where they learn about life in the wild and grow to a size more capable of fighting off predators.
The trust is keen to find more volunteers willing to get involved in the trap roll-out programme or take on a trap line in the forest.
Anyone interested in helping should email Chris Pronk at pronky55@hotmail.com.
