Plan hatched to mend kiwi with crooked beak

wta160114pokiwi02.jpg MB72, a North Island Brown Kiwi, hatched at 4.23pm on Wednesday 8 January, the sixty-first North Island Brown kiwi to be hatched from eggs brought into the nursery from the Pukah

A kiwi with a crooked beak was among four new arrivals at the Wairarapa's Pukaha Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre this month.

Named MB73, the North Island brown kiwi has been sent to Palmerston North for treatment.

Pukaha Mount Bruce general manager Helen Tickner said Massey University's Wildbase wildlife hospital staff are going to cut and graft the beak in an attempt to straighten it. Mrs Tickner said it may be a couple of weeks until they know the fate of the kiwi.

She said lately there had been a lot of buzz about newly hatched kiwi because people were keen to see another white one, but she was just happy to see the majority of them healthy.

Kiwi hatched in captivity have a 65 per cent survival rate, whereas it is only 5 per cent in the wild. Predators such as rats, stoats, feral cats and goats as well as harsh weather threaten kiwi but having the pre-release enclosures helps staff keep an eye out for other health issues.

"We monitor the kiwi carefully here and if they need treatment we can administer that readily. If they are out in the bush, then we can't do that," Mrs Tickner said. APN News & Media