Introduced predators and habitat loss saw New Zealand’s national bird vanish from the capital 100 years ago. A new cohort of 11 birds is changing all that
long a windswept ridge line on Wellington’s south coast, above the pounding sea and in the shadows of whirring wind turbines, 11 kiwi – New Zealand’s treasured national bird – are making themselves at home for the first time in generations.
The birds’ release was an especially moving moment for the man who spearheaded the project. “You know how people say they get goose-bumps? I describe it as kiwi-bumps,” says Paul Ward, a self-described bird nerd who, in 2018, put his film career to one side to establish the The birds – gifted by Ngāti Hinewai hapū – have been relocated more than 400km from the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House to the Mākara community, about 25 minutes from Wellington’s city centre. Among the feathered group is a mating pair – a 40-year-old matriarch the size of a turkey called Anahera, and her beau, Nouveau, 32 years her junior.
If there are no controls in place, stoats will eat up to 100% of chicks in their area, Ward says. The trapping network has caught 1,000 stoats since it was established – enough of a dent to keep their populations at a level where kiwi are able to thrive. “There has been an incredible community shift from presuming that conservation was done by a Department of Conservation ranger in Fiordland or somewhere else, to it being something that we do in our back yards,” Ward says.
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