At the start of this year, more than 100 kiwi were released into the wild in Taranaki. It was a record effort, and things are gearing up for another bumper season this summer. Nick Walker goes behind the scenes to find out all the work that goes into rebuilding the population of our national bird.
In the last five years, the Taranaki kiwi population has more than doubled, going from an estimated 1,500 to around 3,800. There is remarkable progress being made in the battle to bring kiwi populations back, after many years of being considered vulnerable.
For context, when the first groups in Taranaki started really focusing on growing local kiwi numbers in the mid-2000s, it took them around 10 years to get 40 “founding” kiwi at the Taranaki Kōhanga Kiwi at Rotokare – our region’s only designated kiwi breeding site.
Most of the kiwi released this year are in the National Park around Taranaki Maunga, with others in east Taranaki. It’s a big step up from previous years, but there’s still some way to go.
“We used to have millions of kiwi in New Zealand, and currently across five kiwi species we have an estimated 68,000 birds in the whole country,” says Save the Kiwi Operations Manager Tineke Joustra.
There are four genetically different taxa, or variations, of North Island brown kiwi: Western, Eastern, Northland and Coromandel. The Western brown kiwi is found in the west of the North Island, from Waikato to Wellington.
The Department of Conservation (DOC)’s recovery plan for the Western brown kiwi is to achieve a 2% annual population increase. That’s a 4% turnaround from when the policy was adopted in 2018, and the Western brown kiwi population was decreasing at 2% a year.
It’s a humble goal in the scope of the ultimate dream for those at the forefront of helping our national bird.
“We’re working towards sustainable populations that are growing on their own,” says Taranaki Kiwi Trust Manager Celine Filbee. “We’d like to get to the point where we don’t need to breed them inside a fenced sanctuary, but that’s probably decades away.
“In saying that, people are hearing kiwi now. People up Surrey Hill Road on the perimeter of the Kaitake Ranges are hearing them. It’s certainly encouraging.”
The process
Releasing – or translocating, as it’s officially known – kiwi is the high point of a very long process, involving many people and many long hours of work.
To find kiwi, expert kiwi handlers and trained kiwi dogs go into remote bush areas where kiwi still live to find them and put radio transmitters on their legs. It’s a big job, with no guarantee of success.
The job arguably starts before then; it can take two years or more for a handler and kiwi dog to achieve the required certifications.
“Often we’re driving and walking for hours to get to the sites where kiwi are, then we have to figure out how to locate and extract the bird,” says kiwi handler Sian Potier.
“Often I’ll be up to my armpits in a damp, dark space trying to get a kiwi. There’s a lot of bush bashing involved and it’s pretty common to come home covered in mud at the end of a long day.”
Once kiwi are tagged, their movements are monitored to recognise behaviour that indicates they’ve laid eggs.
Kiwi that hatch in areas where there is no predator control only have around a 5% chance of making it to adulthood, largely due to the impact of stoats, so before eggs hatch, teams go back into the bush to collect them. Eggs are then taken to specialist incubation and hatchery facilities in Taupō, Wairarapa or Rotorua.
Kiwi are hatched in those facilities, and once they grow to 400 grams (they usually weigh around 350 grams at birth), they’re released into a sanctuary “creche” like Rotokare. Sanctuaries are predator free, offering young kiwi the chance to grow in a protected, natural environment surrounded by other kiwi.
Once they weigh 1.2 kilograms, provided they pass a range of health tests, kiwi can be released into the wild. At that weight, they can confidently fend off a stoat.
Translocation season lasts from late February to May, and is carefully managed to encourage genetic diversity within each habitat. It can be a very busy time of year.
Rotokare Scenic Reserve is around 230 hectares in size, and takes around five days for teams of 4-5 dogs to work through. Kiwi that are large enough to be translocated into the wild are then taken to pre-prepared sites where suitable burrows have been found or built to be released.
Despite the hard work that goes into making an accommodating new home, kiwi almost always move on to a new burrow within a day of having been translocated.
Many kiwi are released with new transmitters on their legs. There are close to 80 currently being monitored in the region across multiple projects.
Kiwi are monitored at new release sites to ensure post translocation survival and dispersal data is collected. In some cases chicks have tiny transmitters attached, which need to be replaced every six weeks until they reach full maturity because the bands become tight as they grow.
There are multiple translocations that occur within a few months. In that time, staff and volunteers are simultaneously preparing for the next release, while also monitoring and following up on previous ones.
Site preparation and trapping
At the same time as kiwi are being grown and prepared for translocation, the sites earmarked for them to live are heavily monitored for predators. Huge effort goes into this critical task.
For example, the Taranaki Kiwi Trust spends a week a month checking and setting traps in one back-country block alone, and there are several other sites it monitors.
There are a variety of different organisations trapping different areas around Taranaki. Celine Filbee says the region is known for how well it collaborates across different groups; which is vital considering Egmont National Park / Te Papakura o Taranaki is 34,000 hectares and accessible from all sides.
It takes a lot of work to trap, both around its perimeter and within the National Park, but it’s worth it because it’s such an ideal place for kiwi to live.
“People tend to believe kiwi live in the forest and that’s it, but kiwi can live in any habitat,” says Tineke Joustra. “They go from the beach right through to the snow in the mountains. Sometimes it’s unbelievable why they’d go somewhere, but they can find food and everything they need just about anywhere.
“Taranaki Maunga is almost the perfect vision of that, with the snow at the top, all the way down to the beach at the bottom.”
The Taranaki Kiwi Trust and others are also trapping and preparing new sites for kiwi translocation, which is an exhausting process.
To be certified fit for kiwi translocation, sites need to be at least 1,000 hectares in size and have been trapped for at least three years with meticulous data collection.
There’s all sorts of paperwork, planning and engagement that’s required to obtain a permit to translocate kiwi – Celine Filbee says some sites in Taranaki have taken up to 20 years to be signed off as suitable.
Effort
There are around 12 different groups formally involved in kiwi protection in Taranaki. Celine Filbee estimates 624 people assist in at least one part of the process. Most of them are unpaid volunteers.
“Working with kiwi can be addictive; a lot of people see a kiwi translocation or even spot one in the wild, and they’re hooked,” says Tineke Joustra. “We’ll have people come and volunteer once and then they’re there 4-5 days a week or driving enormous distances taking a kiwi somewhere.”
Typically, those involved are immensely passionate. They routinely make a huge effort to do whatever is required, including in their own time and at their own expense.
“We have been known to be overwhelmed by the response when we put posts up on the Taranaki Kiwi Trust Facebook page looking for trapping volunteers. Sometimes we’ve had to take it down after a day,” says Sian Potier. “There are so many people out there that are keen to help, it’s amazing.”
Even people at home can help, particularly those living near streams and waterways where predators are often found, or anywhere near the mountain. Potier says any trap, anywhere in Taranaki can catch a predator that might otherwise end up in kiwi habitat.
“These predators are prolific reproducers so trapping is super important, not only for kiwi but for other birds, invertebrates and lizards which are all vulnerable.”
Dogs are also a common kiwi predator, and Potier says responsible dog ownership is something that makes a real difference in helping kiwi numbers to grow.
As it stands, the kiwi population is still dependent on volunteer assistance and trapping. Filbee, Potier and Joustra all agree we’re some way from their ultimate dream of self-sustaining kiwi populations living in the wild.
But thanks to the massive efforts of a lot of people, they’re getting closer every day.