Kiwis released to predator-free home

Te Pao a Tahu, a male, was one of four kiwi chicks released in the predator-free reserve on Mt Maungatautari. Picture / Amos Chapple

Four young kiwi were released onto Maungatautari at the weekend, signalling the return of the native bird to the Waikato mountain for the first time in an estimated 100 years.

The North Island brown kiwi chicks were released into a 35ha pest-free native wildlife refuge on the forested volcanic cone, created by a charitable trust.

The two female and two male chicks come from eggs found in Tongariro State Forest. The eggs were artificially incubated and hatched at Rotorua's Kiwi Encounter between December and February.

The birds are the latest to be released under Operation Nest Egg, which began in 1995 and has seen about 300 kiwi hatched and returned to the wild.

Husbandry manager Claire Travers said chicks were usually released when they were six months old and weighed about 1000gm.

"They're heavy enough for a stoat not to want to eat them," she said.

But stoats and other predators should not be a problem at Maungatautari, thanks to the efforts of the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust.

The trust has already created two enclosures at the mountain, near Cambridge, and is installing a pest-proof fence around the perimeter.

The Department of Conservation declared the northern enclosure where the four chicks were released safe for kiwi after a successful pest-eradication programme.
Nine kilometres of the 27km perimeter fence, designed to keep out animals such as mice, rats, pigs, ferrets and possums, have been completed.

The barrier, developed by Waikato company Xcluder Pest-Proof Fencing, should be finished by the end of next year.

The trust hopes to return takahe, tuatara and kokako to the mountain in the next few years.

Chief executive Jim Mylchreest said the release of kiwi was an important first step.

"This is a turning point for the preservation of New Zealand's indigenous threatened species," he said.

Representatives from the trust, DoC and iwi gathered for the release of the chicks, which were a gift from Tuwharetoa people in Tongariro to Tainui in Waikato.

Ms Travers said the release would not have been possible without the tribes' involvement.