Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Kiwi egg uplifting project reaches near-record numbers

By Mitchell Hageman
Hawkes Bay Today·
31 Jan, 2023 02:55 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust chairman Simon Hall examines a kiwi egg retrieved as part of Operation Nest Egg from the Maungataniwha Native Forest.

Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust chairman Simon Hall examines a kiwi egg retrieved as part of Operation Nest Egg from the Maungataniwha Native Forest.

Hawke’s Bay’s Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust has reported a near-record number of kiwi egg upliftings this season.

Fifty-one viable eggs were sent to the National Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua during the first half of the season, just four short of the Trust’s previous ‘first clutch’ record.

The uplifting has acted as part of Operation Nest Egg, a project where kiwi eggs are removed from their burrows, and hatched chicks are nurtured in captivity until they can fend for themselves in the wild.

While there are traditionally fewer eggs retrieved in the back half of the egg-lifting season (around March), there are signs of a strong finish.

Save the Kiwi executive director Michelle Impey said that the results of the program have been very successful. In May last year, the trust released its 500th kiwi back into the bush.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“Over the past 16 years, the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust has become one of the most prolific contributors of eggs to Operation Nest Egg,” she said.

“Reaching the 500 milestone was a significant achievement both for them and for the future of the Eastern brown kiwi.”

After previous success in the Maungataniwha Native Forest in 2017, the trust is also re-establishing a self-sustaining kiwi population at a site in Pohokura as part of a national Kiwi Recovery Plan.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The plan aims to have 100,000 living kiwi by 2030, which will be done by growing populations of all kiwi species by at least two per cent a year.

A major focus will continue to be helping the Eastern brown kiwi, which is the least managed and fastest-declining subset of the North Island’s four regional populations.

Trust chairman Simon Hall said that he hoped the Pohokura site would ultimately help re-populate neighboring areas with kiwi.

“Just 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 neighboring areas such as the Whirinaki Conservation Forest, which is also being made safe for them.”

Other conservation partners involved in the project include the Cape Sanctuary, the National Kiwi Hatchery and its funder Ngāi Tahu, the Department of Conservation, and Save The Kiwi.

Hall said that he’s thankful to these partners, as well as the community members that have contributed to the project.

“Kiwi conservation is not just about partnerships, it’s about community,” he said.

“It’s about friends, neighbours and our volunteers banding together to protect this strange, wonderful little bird, frequently in the dark and the cold and the pouring rain. They do it for love – literally.”

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

'Lost a lot': CBD brothel plan abandoned after mayoral candidate's condemnation

Hawkes Bay Today

Cheaper rates for Napier residents who put their bins out less

Hawkes Bay Today

Here comes the sun in Hawke's Bay, but frosty nights likely


Sponsored

Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

'Lost a lot': CBD brothel plan abandoned after mayoral candidate's condemnation
Hawkes Bay Today

'Lost a lot': CBD brothel plan abandoned after mayoral candidate's condemnation

'I am not doing anything illegal. I was trying to create a safe place for sex workers.'

21 Aug 03:35 AM
Cheaper rates for Napier residents who put their bins out less
Hawkes Bay Today

Cheaper rates for Napier residents who put their bins out less

21 Aug 03:21 AM
Here comes the sun in Hawke's Bay, but frosty nights likely
Hawkes Bay Today

Here comes the sun in Hawke's Bay, but frosty nights likely

21 Aug 02:33 AM


Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet
Sponsored

Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet

10 Aug 09:12 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP