Little kiwi, big name and bigger future

Tepapepaetanga o te Rangi is gently introduced to his new temporary home on Motuora Island yesterday. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The little brown kiwi with a very long name, Tepapepaetanga o te Rangi, was born in a zoo but 30 days later got his first taste of life on the outside after being released on Motuora Island.

It may seem an unusual start to life for a kiwi, but Tepapepaetanga (for short) is now the 150th baby kiwi which has travelled the route from Auckland Zoo to the Hauraki Gulf island, 5km off the Mahurangi Heads.

He is another cute face of Save the Kiwi Operation Nest Egg, where kiwi eggs are collected from the wild in parts of Northland to keep them safe from predators to be safely incubated, hatched and reared at the zoo.

With a 93 per cent success rate the zoo thought it appropriate to call their latest kiwi release Tepapepaetanga, which means reaching the pinnacle.

He weighs 460g and by the time Tepapepaetanga is released back into predator-controlled bush near Whangarei in a year's time he should have grown to about 1200g, big enough to fight off stoats or cats.

The pest-free 80ha Motuora Island is home to about 40 young kiwi, some of whom even find mates while they temporarily live there. If Tepapepaetanga proves to be anything like his father, Rainbow, then he might too.

Andrew Nelson, the zoo's New Zealand fauna team leader, said Rainbow had fathered 11 kiwi through Operation Nest Egg and at least 19 more in the wild in Northland.

"These chicks are in turn growing up and contributing further to the North Island brown kiwi population."

Wild-born kiwi have just a 10 per cent chance of reaching six months, and a less than 5 per cent chance of reaching adulthood.

An Operation Nest Egg chick has more than a 40 per cent chance of survival to adulthood once released back into the wild, well over the 20 per cent required for a population to increase.

After a last, tearful cuddle zookeeper Michelle Whybrow let go of her little charge on Motuora yesterday.

Tepapepaetanga darted straight into his manmade burrow but by tonight he will probably have made a new home for himself elsewhere and be foraging for worms and insects.