A kiwi recovery programme is urging hunters to take proper care of their dogs in the bush after an adult kiwi was killed by dogs and another has disappeared in the Kaweka Ranges, west of Napier.
Alastair Bramley, a spokesman for the Environment Conservation and Outdoor Education Trust, said the kiwi'sbody was discovered last Wednesday.
It was one of nine breed pairs monitored in the Kaweka Forest Park as part of a joint project between the local community and the Department of Conservation.
Mr Bramley said an autopsy suggested the kiwi was chased from its territory, caught by the leg and left to die a painful death.
A stray dog was picked up last Thursday, just 500m from where the dead kiwi was found, but he believed another dog was still at large.
The death, and the disappearance of another kiwi were a setback to the new Hawkes Bay kiwi recovery programme, which had only released its first chick into the wild two weeks ago.
Mr Bramley said it was a high-risk time for kiwis as deer hunters and their dogs headed into the ranges.
"If a hunter loses or becomes separated from a dog in the Lotkow-Kaweka Rd area, or in any bush around the country, we urge them to immediately contact the Department of Conservation for assistance in finding their dog.
"North Island brown kiwi are now effectively extinct south of Hawkes Bay," he said.
"Hunters and others who use the outdoors have a really important role to play in helping to turn around their decline."
