{"id":2779,"date":"2015-04-07T12:28:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T00:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/?p=2779"},"modified":"2025-08-13T12:29:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:29:19","slug":"mother-and-son-reunion-marks-special-conservation-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/mother-and-son-reunion-marks-special-conservation-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother and son reunion marks special conservation milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One \u2018Kiwi chick\u2019 flies home from Oz to return another kiwi chick to the forest<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An emotional surprise Kiwi family reunion marked the return last week of a very special kiwi chick to the inland Hawke\u2019s Bay forest from where its egg was taken. The 200th kiwi chick reared by the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust and its conservation partners was returned to the bush by Aucklander Lynda Holswich who was reunited with her own \u2018fledgling\u2019 at the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her son Aaron was flown home secretly from Australia to be with his mother for the release. Video of the reunion can be seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The male bird, named Tanekaha (Strong Man), was incubated at Kiwi Encounter in Rotorua and reared in a predator-free area at the Cape Sanctuary south of Napier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To mark the occasion the Trust\u2019s primary sponsor, Auckland-based Tasti Products, ran a Facebook competition asking followers with children overseas to suggest names for the bird in honour of their offshore offspring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Holswich said she involved a close colleague, with recently-diagnosed Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma, to help with the naming of the kiwi and decided on the name Tanekaha, which could also be applied to her sons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tasti secretly got in touch with Aaron and arranged to fly him home to be reunited with his mother at the Trust\u2019s property in the Maungataniwha Native Forest in Hawke\u2019s Bay. Ms Holswich said the reunion was emotional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe last thing I expected was to see my son when the helicopter landed at Maungataniwha \u2013 I didn\u2019t know whether to laugh, cry or run away,\u201d she said. \u201cIt turned a special event into something absolutely amazing and meaningful for me. It\u2019s a day Aaron and I will remember for the rest of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chairman of the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust Simon Hall said there had been an obvious connection between Ms Holswich and the kiwi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was calm and still with her and in no hurry to burrow into the nest we had prepared for him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Maungataniwha Kiwi Project<\/a> is part of Kiwi for kiwis\u2019 Operation Nest Egg and is fast carving out a name for itself as one of the most prolific and successful kiwi conservation initiatives in the country. Since its inception in 2006 it has harvested about 360 eggs and seen 200 chicks released back into the wild, about 160 of which have been released back into the Maungataniwha Native Forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fully-fledged chicks released back into the forest as part of the project have an approximately 70 percent chance of survival. This survival rate contrasts starkly with the five percent chance that kiwi have of making it to adulthood if hatched in the bush and left unprotected against predators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Population modelling suggests around 200 kiwi needed to be released back into Maungataniwha to make the population there secure for the next 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to be making big strides towards this milestone. We\u2019re absolutely delighted with the project\u2019s success to date and plan to keep on going,\u201d Mr Hall said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eggs are taken from the Trust\u2019s property in the Maungataniwha Native Forest<\/a> adjacent to Te Urewera National Park and sent to Kiwi Encounter for incubation. The resulting chicks are then reared at the Cape Sanctuary until they are large enough to defend themselves against predators, before being returned to the wild at Maungataniwha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2012 Trust patron Rachel Hunter released Takamoana, the 100th chick reared by the project.<\/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<\/a> (Clianthus maximus<\/em>), an extremely rare type of shrub, and the re-establishment of native plants and forest<\/a> on 4,000 hectares currently, or until recently, under pine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

One \u2018Kiwi chick\u2019 flies home from Oz to return another kiwi chick to the forest An emotional surprise Kiwi family reunion marked the return last week of a very special kiwi chick to the inland Hawke\u2019s Bay forest from where its egg was taken. The 200th kiwi chick reared by the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust […]<\/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-2779","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\/2779","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=2779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2780,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779\/revisions\/2780"}],"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=2779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}