The Kiwi

While we were with Ron and Vivien in Paraparaumu we couldn't resist a trip to Kapiti Island.It's one of NZ's most well-known wildlife reserves, where native plants and birds are being helped to survive by constant monitoring for the presence of the harmful pests who were introduced by Man.
Amongst the endangered birds which can be found there is the Kiwi.
Millions of years ago the land that is now New Zealand was part of a huge continent. At the time of the split dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and it was only when they became extinct that other mammals developed. But for thousands of years New Zealand's only mammals were two species of bats and marine creatures like seals,whales and dolphins.
With no predators, birds, including the Kiwi, evolved without wings. When humans - at first it was the Maori - arrived, bringing with them animals such as rats and dogs, the flightless birds were easy prey. Hunted by Maori, the giant Moa was extinct before Captain Cook arrived. With, and after, him came pest animals, particularly stoats, possums, even hedgehogs, against which birds such as the Kiwi have no defence and are unable to protect their eggs and chicks.

The Kiwi is the closest thing to a mammal that a bird can be. Their feathers are like coarse hair. They have nostrils at the end of their long beak, heavy marrow-filled bones and a low body temperature. I was surprised to discover that Kiwi have long necks; they tuck them in. Also that most of what you are seeing when looking at a Kiwi is leg muscle; they have very strong legs.

The female lays an enormous egg. When it is inside her it squashes her organs and she finds it hard to eat. Just thinking about this, and how it must feel to lay this egg, makes my eyes water.
It's the male Kiwi which incubates the egg, and when the chick hatches it has a full coat of feathers. The parents don't feed the chick; after a few days surviving on the contents of the egg from which it came the chick must find its own food.
In just 200 years the number of Kiwi in NZ has gone from millions to about 70,000 and they are in trouble. This is in spite of the fact that the bird is one of the national symbols.
Having read all this, are you surprised that I wanted to see some Kiwi?
But, in addition to the fact that it has become rare to find them in the wild, Kiwi spend the daylight hours in burrows and only come out at night. Finding one is no easy task.

There are 5 recognised species of Kiwi in NZ. If the weather hadn't been so bad we might have seen Great Spotted Kiwi on Stewart Island. If the Kiwi spotting night walk hadn't been fully booked for days we might have seen Rowi Kiwi at Okarito in Fjordland. Kapiti Island seemed to be our last realistic chance of seeing a Kiwi. So we went in search of the Little Spotted Kiwi.