Creche course for Kiwi

Let's hear it for Apteryx mantelli, better known as the brown kiwi.
They are brave and calm but when they're fighting for their lives they can pack quite a punch with their big legs and long bills.
Kiwi are the only bird species in the world which have nostrils at the end of their bills - all the better to sniff out ground-dwelling bugs and insects.
But the spiky-feathered national icon was so relentlessly attacked by unwelcome invaders for decades that the wild population was under serious threat.
In areas where the nocturnal bird's plaintive, shrill cry had always been a common night noise, for several years hardly a kiwi call was heard.
The Northland population which once numbered countless thousands was estimated to have dwindled to a dangerously threatened number during the past decade's low point.
The Department of Conservation, Friends of Matakohe-Limestone Island, Landcare and other conservation groups swung into action five years ago.
Now, with their help, the kiwi is fighting back.
Often that fight is physical. The powerful legs and well-aimed beak of an adult bird can deter some four-legged attackers.
But all too often the attacker wins, whether stealing kiwi eggs from burrows, killing chicks or taking on the adult bird. Dogs, wild pigs, feral cats, fierce ferrets, stoats and weasels, rats, traps, cars, poison and possums - and humans who introduced those threats - all contributed to the kiwi's endangered status. Five years ago DOC targeted an improvement in the then Northland survival rate of 20 percent of wild kiwi, Northland programme manager Clea Gardiner said.
This year, 69 percent of chicks raised in the Operation Nest Egg creche on Matakohe-Limestone Island and released later in mainland reserves have survived, Ms Gardiner said.
Through human intervention - the recovery programmes, predator control, public education and the like - kiwi in the wild now have to fight off, or succumb to, only two of the previous five greatest threats, Ms Gardiner said. Many Northland reserves have now been repopulated with juveniles hatched either at Auckland Zoo's incubation centre or the Northpower Bird Recovery Centre, and raised on Matakohe-Limestone Island.
All the birds set free in Northland are hatched from eggs gathered in the region. The birds are released only after they weigh 1.2kg, big enough to kick-box their way to freedom from cats, stoats and weasels. Sadly ferrets and dogs can kill adult birds.
But left alone in a safe environment, kiwi can live well over 20 years old.
* KIWI KILLERS
? Kiwi are adaptable birds and live in grassland, native and exotic forests or rough farmland.
? Less than five percent of kiwi survive to adulthood in the wild. About 70 percent of chicks are killed by predators, 20 percent die of natural causes. Only 10 percent survive to six months of age.Dogs kill kiwi. Even the gentlest family pet can be attracted by the kiwi's strong smell.
? Dogs seldom eat kiwi but kill them easily by crushing the birds' body cage which lacks the protection wing bones would offer.
? A stoat which can kill a kiwi chick weighing six times more than it does. Stoats, weasels and ferrets were brought here in the 19th century to control a plague of earlier introduced rabbits.
? Wild cats can kill kiwi chicks but after six months of age, when kiwi weigh about 1kg, they are strong and stroppy enough to see off cats.
? Ferrets, also known as fitch or polecat, the largest of the mustelids, are killing machines. Where stoats and weasels are a threat to chicks, the fiercer, bigger ferret can kill full grown kiwi.
? Wild pigs can easily root out a kiwi burrow and, like possums, destroy the egg or chick's environment.
* MAORI LEGEND - Why the kiwi lives on the forest floor
One day the king of the forest, Tanemahuta, was walking through the forest when he noticed his children, the trees, looked sick.
They were being eaten by the bugs that lived on the forest floor.
Tanemahuta told his brother Tanehokahoka, the king of the sky, what was happening to his children.
Wanting to help, Tanehokahoka called all the birds together.
"The ground grubs and insects are eating the trees," he said. "I need one of you to give up your life in the sky and live on the forest floor so the trees will be saved. Who will come?"
Tanemahuta and Tanehokahoka waited but not a single bird raised his voice.
Tanehokahoka turned to Tui.
"Tui, will you come down from the forest roof?"
"Oh no," Tui said. "Tanehokahoka, it is too dark and I am afraid of the dark."
Tanehokahoka turned to Pukeko.
"Pukeko, will you come down from the forest roof?"
Pukeko said, "Oh no, the ground is too wet and I don't like getting my feet wet." Tanehokahoka then turned to Pipiwharauroa, the cuckoo.
"Pipiwharauroa, will you come down from the forest roof?"
Pipiwharauroa replied, "No, I am busy building a nest for my family."
Tanehokahoka knew that if one of the birds did not come down to the forest floor, the trees would die and all the birds would have nowhere to live.
Lastly, Tanehokahoka turned to Kiwi.
"Please, will you come down from the skies and save the trees?"
Kiwi looked around and saw his family living near the sky. Kiwi then looked at the cold damp earth and turned to Tanehokahoka.
"Yes," he said.
Tanemahuta looked at this brave bird and said, "Kiwi, if you do this you will have to grow strong legs and lose your beautiful wings and colourful feathers so you blend in with the forest floor.
"You will never be able to return to the forest roof and will never see the light of day again."
Kiwi took one last long look at the sun and whispered a quiet goodbye.
Then Tanehokahoka turned to the other birds and said, "Tui, because you were too scared, from now on you will wear two white feathers at your throat as the mark of a coward.
"Pukeko, because you didn't want to get your feet wet you will now spend the rest of your days in the swamp.
"Pipiwharauroa, because you were too busy building a nest for your family you will never build another nest again. Instead, you will have to lay your eggs in other birds' nests.
"But you, Kiwi, because of your sacrifice you will become the most well known and loved bird of them all."