Max's baby brought in out of the cold

Ngahuru which hatched last week. Photo / Supplied

The close of the kiwi hatching season has been delayed this year after the discovery of a late egg.

The egg was found by a ranger charging a transmitter on a male brown kiwi named Max in the Tongariro Forest last week.

Worried that the egg might be abandoned by the father, she took it to Kiwi Encounter at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua for incubation and hatching.

When brown kiwi are in the wild, the egg is incubated by the father, while the mother goes off to feed.

"Sometimes when a kiwi is scared it won't return to incubate the egg, so the best option was to bring the egg to Kiwi Encounter to hatch," said Kiwi Encounter husbandry manager Claire Travers.

It will take about five weeks for the egg, which is estimated to be at 40 days of development, to hatch.

The current kiwi hatching season has been longer than usual, beginning on September 5, with the latest arrival possibly stretching the close out to June.

Kiwi Encounter oversaw the hatching of 107 eggs during the season, with two still in incubation and another due to hatch any day.

"As always, it's been a very rewarding season, the Kiwi Encounter team never tires from nurturing these precious birds and helping ensure that they have a strong start in life so they can survive in the wild," said Ms Travers.

Highlights of the season for the team have included a rare ginger kiwi named Kindara and one named Whisker that survived being run over by a digger.