Hand-reared kiwi falls victim to stoat

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

Honey is one woebegone little kiwi.

Two weeks after being released into the Kaweka Ranges in the central North Island, the formerly cheeky chick was found near death after a stoat attack.

Back at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua, where she first arrived as an egg, the four-month-old is fighting for survival.

Kiwi House staff Carole Harvey and Claire Travers are feeding Honey by tube and dosing her with antibiotics.

She has a vicious-looking wound at the back of her neck, which is swollen and stripped of feathers.

The keepers said the puncture marks were typical of a stoat - the number one enemy of New Zealand's national bird.

Honey hatched on September 21 last year and was hand-reared at Rainbow Springs under the Department of Conservation's save-the-kiwi programme Operation Nest Egg.

"She was always a stroppy chick - that may be what will save her," Ms Harvey said.

The minimum weight for releasing kiwi into the Kaweka Ranges is 800g, to help ensure longevity.

In the wild, 95 per cent of kiwi die before they are six months old, many the victims of predatory stoats, ferrets, cats, rats, pigs and dogs.

Honey was a healthy 1053g when she left Rainbow Springs.

"That probably would have been on her side," Ms Harvey said. "A smaller chick would have been killed."

Released on January 6 with a tiny transmitter attached, Honey was monitored by DOC officer Tamsin Ward-Smith.

On Tuesday it was proving difficult to pinpoint the bird in the scrub so Ms Ward-Smith went looking. She had to dig Honey out of a rotten log where the little kiwi - barely alive - seems to have huddled out of further danger.

Ms Ward-Smith bundled Honey up in her jersey and took her to a veterinarian, who cleaned the wound and injected an antibiotic.

On Wednesday the sick kiwi was driven from Napier to Rotorua where, despite her state, she seemed to recognise her surroundings.

Yesterday she had perked up a little after managing to eat 35g of food by herself overnight.

"I think she was missing the home cooking," said Ms Harvey, who served up minced ox heart mixed with porridge, wheatgerm, banana and cat biscuits, seasoned with vitamins and minerals.

But Honey has not regained her old fight or her previous weight (she is down to 927g). Her hot feet indicated a high temperature.

"To see something like this is heartbreaking," said Ms Harvey.

"It is so frustrating. A lot of time, passion and dedication goes into getting kiwi back to the forest. It is an uphill struggle."

nzherald.co.nz/environment