The Plight of the Kiwi Bird

The national bird of New Zealand, the Kiwi, has been on the brink of extinction and headed for disaster until the people, conservationists and scientists came together to fight for the survival of this unique creature. This bird is nocturnal and flightless; it is an easy target for stoats, possums, cats and dogs and any other feral animal that feeds on small birds and animals. It was diminishing rapidly from the wild and their numbers were in sharp decline until some keen conservationists noticed this scary trend and started doing something about it.

There has been much support from people all around the country and businesses like the Bank of New Zealand have set up a trust fund for this icon and offered financial support to save our bird. The Bank of New Zealand Save The Kiwi Trust was an early contributor and it was “shocked to learn that kiwi could disappear off the mainland”. At the end of 2005, total allocations from the trust to approved kiwi protection projects had topped $5 million. You can give your donation for this worthy cause at any of the branches of the BNZ, (Bank of New Zealand). Auckland Zoo has a show where children and people can get a close up view our national bird. This bird has been trained specially for the purpose of making the public aware of the dangers it faces. It is these types of initiatives that are bringing some awareness to the plight of our national bird. There have been islands that are being used to raise the birds, that are free from predators and harm and these things are helping get the numbers of these birds back up there. It is believed that there are approximately about 80,000 birds left in the wild which is great news. The progress made from hatching the chicks and releasing the chicks into the wilderness when they are capable seems to have helped increase numbers too.

I can remember a similar call from the US President, Jack Kennedy, to save their national bird, the bald eagle back in the 1960s. The eagle is off the endangered list now and the Kiwi is making good progress too. Neville Peat is a Dunedin author who has just released his third book on kiwi called,” Kiwi – The People’s Bird” which was released by Otago University Press, $45 .