Eight Taranaki kiwi chicks were released into Egmont National Park in the region's first mass kiwi release.
The release, on Tuesday April 3 was a double celebration with Taranaki Kiwi Trust celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. This is the third year kiwi have been released into the park. Up to March 27,17 kiwi have found new homes on Mt Egmont/Taranaki slopes. The eight kiwi are the first of a total 17 chicks that will be released into the park this year. The eggs were taken from the wilds of Aotuhia and Purangi, in Eastern Taranaki, late last year. They hatched at Kiwi Encounter, Rainbow Springs. After three weeks as chicks at Kiwi Encounter, the chicks have spent several months at Bushy Park, a predator-free reserve near Wanganui. "Bushy Park enables the kiwi to get used to being in the wild, and to enable them to grow to at least 1kg in weight before they are released into Egmont National Park," said Kris Grabow, the Trust's field officer.
The eight kiwi: Te Whiti, Taumata, Big Kereopa, Koruarua, Kio Kio, Whakapono, Heketara and Piupiu have graduated from the kiwi cr?che at Bushy Park, and are now ready to go it alone in Egmont National Park.
"It will be quite a challenge to retrieve all eight chicks in one day ready for the big release, but we have a skilled team on hand and each chick is wearing a radio transmitter," said Kris. The Taranaki Kiwi Trust was set up in 2002, following concerns expressed about the plight of kiwi in Taranaki. Since then, the Trust has gathered both funding and community support for the initiative. The Trust's mission is to promote and facilitate the protection of sustainable populations of kiwi in Taranaki. Working to this mission, it has developed a partnership with the Department of Conservation to set up the Kiwi Conservation Programme in Egmont National Park.
The Trust also runs a predator trap loan scheme to enable private landowners to protect kiwi on their own properties. "The Trust has received extensive support from regional and national funding organisations, and has huge ongoing support from the public," said Jenny Steven.
Tuesday was a day of celebration for both the Department of Conservation and Taranaki Kiwi Trust, with key supporters, past trustees, and sponsors of the various kiwi conservation programmes gathering at the York Road entrance to the park. Taranaki Kiwi Trust patron, Sir Paul Reeves, is among the expected guests. The chicks will be blessed by kaumatua from Ngati Ruanui before being taken into the park and released. The remaining nine chicks are still resident at Bushy Park and will be released later this year.
Around 90 per cent of kiwi chicks born into the wild die within their first six months - 70 per cent of them killed by stoats and cats. Only five per cent of kiwi chicks in the wild survive to adulthood.
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