Dogs and cars are slashing the average lifespan of Northland kiwi by more than half.
Kiwi live on average 30-40 years and can reach the ripe old age of 60 - but in the North they survive on average just 14 years.
The main reason, according to Wendy Sporle of BNZ Save the Kiwi, is dogs.
The carnage was graphically illustrated when a Department of Conservation freezer in Kerikeri was emptied of more than 50 dead kiwi, from freshly hatched chicks to mature adults, which had been collected across the Mid North. Another 40 were buried at Whangarei around the same time, she said.
"It's just such, such a waste. Northland is in the sad situation of kiwi living to an average 14 years, when they can survive up to 60."
The region is home to about 8000 kiwi of the Northland brown subspecies.
"They can have a couple of chicks a year for 50 years. If they had a chance to breed, their population could explode - but they're just getting nailed," she said.
The best solution is to keep dogs out of the bush. If it really is necessary to bring a dog into kiwi habitat, kiwi aversion training can help.
In Northland, unlike other parts of the country, aversion training was free, she said.
DoC Bay of Islands biodiversity manager Adrian Walker said the dead kiwi had been brought in by rangers and the public over the past three years.
Of the 50-plus in the photo, about half had been killed by dogs and the rest by cars.
"There are probably many more dog kills that are never reported because the bird isn't found ... We've had dog owners come in [with dead kiwi] and it's been a very difficult thing for them. They feel bad and don't want it to happen to anyone else," Mr Walker said.
He urged owners to know what their dogs were doing at all times, and to keep them under close supervision in kiwi areas. "If you're not able to control your dog, it should stay tied up," he said.
Kiwi are especially vulnerable to dogs because they nest on the ground, are easily located by smell and are susceptible to crush injuries.
Pressure around a kiwi's midriff is enough to kill the bird, even if the skin isn't punctured.
The hot spots for road deaths are the Opito Bay-Redcliffs-Rangitane area north of the Kerikeri Inlet and Bulls Gorge, Waimate North Rd and Kapiro Rd.
Northland is unusual in that it has pockets of dense kiwi population overlapping with human settlement. Elsewhere around New Zealand, with the exception of the Coromandel, kiwi live in areas with few people. Last year a kiwi was even found in Kerikeri's Mill Lane industrial area.
Despite the deaths, Mr Walker said the prognosis for Northland kiwi was "pretty good".
Landcare groups and organisations like BNZ Save the Kiwi have put a lot of work into reducing predator numbers, and are now educating dog owners. Kerikeri resident Rolf Mueller-Glodde, who took the photo, was mowing his lawns when DoC staff asked him to stop for a while because they were filming kiwi next door. They invited him to take a look.
"Curious as I am, I went, excited to see a flock of kiwis during daylight ... But there they were: An extremely sad flock of kiwis. Even the most harmless, beloved dog can be a killer of kiwi," Mr Mueller-Glodde said.
DoC was making an educational film about the risk dogs pose to kiwi.
The dead birds are numbered, measured and recorded, and given to iwi in the area they were found for use in cloaks and other items before they are buried.
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