{"id":3035,"date":"2023-10-23T13:18:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T00:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/?p=3035"},"modified":"2025-08-15T13:20:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T01:20:18","slug":"wet-summer-sets-kiwi-conservationists-up-for-yet-another-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wet-summer-sets-kiwi-conservationists-up-for-yet-another-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Wet summer sets kiwi conservationists up for yet another record"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Third clutch blurs the line between kiwi breeding seasons<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A productive kiwi breeding season (Q4 2022- Q2 2023) in Hawke\u2019s Bay saw a leading conservation trust deliver 96 viable eggs to the National Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua as part of the national Operation Nest Egg conservation drive, two more than last year\u2019s record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kiwi lay eggs in two clutches, typically towards the end of Spring and in late Summer or early Autumn. This season the second clutch was noticeably late and one of the Trust\u2019s kiwi experts, Tamsin Ward-Smith<\/a>, suspects this may have something to do with Storm Gabrielle and the generally wetter than normal summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another unusual development, three of the Trust\u2019s monitored kiwi had three clutches. One of these birds, Scratch, produced six chicks, the youngest of which hatched on 17 May. Most kiwi are starting to prepare for their first clutches of the new season by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not really sure why there was a third clutch,\u201d Ms Ward-Smith said. \u201cWe do know that when conditions are good for kiwi they usually make use of it. It has certainly been significantly wetter and, of course, in the mountainous hinterland our kiwi don\u2019t have to cope with the extreme flooding we\u2019ve seen in the lowlands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juvenile kiwi hatching in forests with no predator protection in place have only a five percent chance of making it to adulthood. The survival rate of cr\u00e8ched kiwi far exceeds this; 79 birds from the 96 eggs (82.3 percent) were returned to the bush after growing to a kilogram in weight in predator-proof enclosures known as kiwi cr\u00e8ches. This is the size they need to be to effectively defend themselves from stoats, one of the worst predators of young kiwi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trust uses juvenile kiwi from Maungataniwha eggs to re-stock an adjacent property, Pohokura, mid-way between Taupo and Napier. This supports the long-term goal of the national Kiwi Recovery Plan; to reach 100,000 kiwi by 2030 through growing populations of all kiwi species by at least two percent a year, restoring them to their former distribution and maintaining their genetic diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chairman Simon Hall said he hoped Pohokura would ultimately help re-populate neighbouring areas with kiwi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust as Maungataniwha can now be the source of kiwi to re-stock Pohokura, so we hope that ultimately Pohokura kiwi will make their way naturally to neighbouring areas such as the Whirinaki Te Pua-a-T\u0101ne Conservation Park, which is also being made safe for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, along with Maungataniwha, Pohokura, privately-owned Ngatapa Station and the Waipunga Conservation Area, forms a contiguous 100,000 ha swathe of the central North Island where kiwi conservation is a priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Hall said the trust\u2019s work with kiwi could not happen without the help and investment from its conservation partners, particularly the Cape Sanctuary, the National Kiwi Hatchery and its funder Ng\u0101i Tahu, the Department of Conservation and Save the Kiwi, the only national charity dedicated to protecting kiwi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKiwi conservation is not just about partnerships, it\u2019s about community,\u201d Mr Hall said. \u201cIt\u2019s about friends, neighbours and our volunteers banding together to protect our national icon. Frequently in the dark and the cold and the pouring rain. They do it for love \u2013 literally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the Maungataniwha Kiwi Project<\/a>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 there-establishment of native plants and forest<\/a>on 4,000 hectares currently, or until recently, under pine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Third clutch blurs the line between kiwi breeding seasons A productive kiwi breeding season (Q4 2022- Q2 2023) in Hawke\u2019s Bay saw a leading conservation trust deliver 96 viable eggs to the National Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua as part of the national Operation Nest Egg conservation drive, two more than last year\u2019s record. Kiwi lay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3037,"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-3035","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\/3035","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=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3041,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions\/3041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}