Another Kerikeri kiwi has been killed by dogs, ironically during Save Kiwi Month and just after the announcement of a government plan to boost kiwi numbers to 100,000 by the year 2030.
Peter Nash was checking his paddocks on Puketotara Rd on Saturday when he was "absolutely gutted" to discover a dead kiwi. He took it to a Department of Conservation ranger who confirmed it had been killed by dog bites to the head and rear, and identified it as a juvenile male.
Mr Nash believed the dead kiwi was one of two pairs that lived on his property and which he heard calling almost every night.
Coincidentally - or possibly not - the killing occurred around the same time as stray dogs appeared on his property for the first time in the 10 years he had lived there.
"I'd always hoped one day to hold a kiwi and be up close, but I never thought I'd hold a dead one. It still makes me feel sick thinking about it."
Mr Nash said people needed to know that kiwi lived all around them in the Bay of Islands and that roaming dogs were their greatest threat.