{"id":2773,"date":"2014-09-22T12:19:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T00:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/?p=2773"},"modified":"2025-08-13T12:21:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:21:24","slug":"kiwi-conservationists-on-trend-alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/kiwi-conservationists-on-trend-alert\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi conservationists on trend alert"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

First kiwi eggs of the new season are arriving for incubation<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust\u2019s Maungataniwha Kiwi Project is keeping a close eye on eggs currently being collected for incubation, and the resulting chicks, to see if a drop in egg numbers from last season\u2019s second clutch is repeated this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t a localised issue. The change was noticed from across the North Island by the National Kiwi Trust at Rainbow Springs\u2019 Kiwi Encounter in Rotorua.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far this season things are back to normal. The Maungataniwha Kiwi Project\u2019s first two chicks have put in an appearance at Kiwi Encounter in Rotorua. Tuatahi, meaning \u2018First\u2019 in te reo, hatched on 4 September and weighed a healthy 375g. \u0100raitanga arrived on 16 September, weighing an even healthier 377g.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2014\/2015 season is well under way with 14 eggs having been delivered to Kiwi Encounter for incubation and hatching since 16 August. Five of these were non-viable, meaning that the egg was either infertile or the embryo had died during early development. But the viable eggs are doing well, according to Kiwi Encounter, and more chicks will be hatching soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barry Crene, the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust\u2019s kiwi handler, said he expected to retrieve eggs from at least 18 birds this season, which will end in about mid-April next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last season\u2019s drop in egg numbers could have been the result of a very dry summer, resulting in fewer invertebrates being available for kiwi to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis would have meant that the birds were not in peak condition and were less keen to lay and sit,\u201d said Claire Travers, husbandry manager at Kiwi Encounter. \u201cIt will be interesting to see what happens this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chicks from Maungataniwha are incubated at Kiwi Encounter then sent to a predator-proof area at Cape Kidnappers south of Napier where they\u2019re raised until they\u2019re large enough to defend themselves in the wild. They\u2019re then returned either to Maungataniwha, in inland Hawke\u2019s Bay, or to partner conservation projects in order to widen the gene pool around a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Forest Lifeforce Restoration (FLR) Trust is fast carving out a name for itself as one of the most prolific and successful kiwi conservation initiatives in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the Maungataniwha Kiwi Project the Trust runs a series of native flora and fauna regeneration projects. These include a drive to increase the wild-grown population of Kakabeak (Clianthus maximus), an extremely rare type of shrub, and the re-establishment of native plants and forest on 4,000 hectares currently, or until recently, under pine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First kiwi eggs of the new season are arriving for incubation The Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust\u2019s Maungataniwha Kiwi Project is keeping a close eye on eggs currently being collected for incubation, and the resulting chicks, to see if a drop in egg numbers from last season\u2019s second clutch is repeated this season. It wasn\u2019t a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2774,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773\/revisions\/2774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}