Kerikeri kiwi returned to wild after hatching drama

A young kiwi is returned to the bush after a dramatic start to life which included starting to hatch while its egg was being rushed to Whangarei's Bird Recovery Centre. Photo / Dean Wright

A kiwi hatched from an egg discovered by a Kerikeri farmer and rushed to Whangārei's Bird Recovery Centre has been successfully returned to the wild.

The eggs were found on October 5 when a farmer was cutting flax at Rangitane, on the northern side of Kerikeri Inlet, unaware that the flax bush was a kiwi's home.

The kiwi legged it, leaving behind a pair of eggs. The farmer alerted DoC and, like a human birthing drama where the baby arrives en route to hospital, one of the eggs started hatching while it was being rushed to Whangārei.

Whangārei Native Bird Recovery Centre manager Robert Webb nurtured the chick in a heated brooder box for a week before transferring it to a bigger box, where it had its first encounter with grass, and then to an outdoor pen.

The second egg failed to hatch and will be used for educational purposes.

Webb commended the farmer for contacting DoC without delay.

''Another two hours and the chick would have died,'' he said at the time.

The hatching drama had a happy ending last month when the young kiwi was returned to its original home at Rangitane by DoC rangers and members of the Kerikeri Peninsula Pest Control Group.

This adult female kiwi was returned to Waimate North after being hit by a car and making a remarkable recovery. Photo / Hana Harris

Another kiwi ended up at the recovery centre in very different circumstances.

That bird, an adult female, was hit by a car on Te Ahu Ahu Rd, in Waimate North, in early December.

Remarkably it made a full recovery and was returned to the wild on the same day as the Rangitane kiwi, but at Okuratope near Waimate North.

That release was carried out by DoC staff and the Waimate North Landcare Group.

Biodiversity ranger Cinzia Vestena said the department was hugely thankful to community conservation groups and their ongoing pest control efforts.

''Without them and the support from the Whangārei Bird Recovery Centre, none of this would be possible."

Normally kiwi lay their eggs in burrows but occasionally they lay them in flax or gorse instead.

■ Call 0800 DOCHOT straight away if you find a kiwi egg or injured kiwi.