Kiwi drowns after release back into wild

Department of Conservation ranger Pete Graham releasing Darkstar. Photo / Northern Advocate

Luck has finally run out for a Northland kiwi who had cheated death.

More than two months after being knocked over by a car, North Island brown kiwi Darkstar has drowned in a culvert.

Named Darkstar by children at Ngunguru School, she was injured when she was run over on May 14. The bird was released at Tutukaka about six months earlier, as part of Operation Nest Egg, with support from the Tutukaka Landcare Coalition.

Darkstar became a media star after the accident and subsequent repair to her broken foot at Auckland Zoo. She was released on to a Ngunguru property on July 22 by Department of Conservation ranger Pete Graham.

But when Mr Graham went to give Darkstar her regular check-up last Thursday, she was found dead.

"I went there and met up with about 20 locals all keen to see me catch up with her. We followed the radio signal from her transmitter and found the signal about 600m from where she was released," he said.

"The locals had all been keeping an ear out for her and we found that she had got her way into a culvert under a driveway. She had got about four metres in and it was blocked at the other end.

"She was unable to get out and sadly, she drowned. She would have just been going in there to find a roost as day came, then she got stuck and when it rained ..."

Mr Graham said Darkstar's injuries had nothing to do with her death as her foot had healed well.

"It was just one of those things that can happen in the wild and there was nothing we could have done about it. This was just another bad situation she got herself into.

"She's had a bit of a rough year," he said.

He said more than $1000 would have been spent fixing Darkstar, but it was money well spent as DoC had no way of determining what would happen to the bird once she was released.

"She had the possibility of becoming a breeding bird if she had got through and if we had got half a dozen eggs from her, it would have been well worth it," Mr Graham said.

"It's breeding season now so hopefully there will be a replacement for Darkstar coming through."

Auckland Zoo vet John Potter fixed Darkstar's leg and he and the rest of the zoo staff who had nursed the kiwi were devastated by her death.

"At first I was concerned that I may have released her too early and the leg didn't heal properly, but her injuries healed very well and had nothing to do with her death," Dr Potter said.