"For the last 10 years we've averaged a 94.9 per cent hatch success, so hatching at 98.4 per cent is a significant increase."
Bean said the hatchery had also had a few wild chicks brought from field workers, taking the total of chicks released for the season to 133 – two more than in 2016/17.
"This has been an incredible year and a great increase on last year, however the important accomplishment is that we have consistently achieved a hatch success of more than 93 per cent for the last 10 years, hatching 1197 chicks in those 10 seasons."
She said this year's results reflected the skills, expertise and passion of the kiwi team.
"Our team has more than 100 years' experience in kiwi incubation and husbandry.
"This endorses us as a centre of excellence and enables us to provide training for other kiwi practitioners – such as hosting the annual Kiwi Egg Candling Course."
Bean is also the country's Zoo and Aquarium Association captive kiwi husbandry adviser and provides crucial advice to other kiwi facilities.
"I'm incredibly proud of the team here, who are dedicated to leading kiwi conservation in best practice and kiwi husbandry expertise.
"Our wild kiwi populations are still declining every year – and if we don't continue to work as hard as we are, we are in danger of losing our national bird."
The season's results are good news for Kiwis for Kiwi's initiative to reverse the decline of North Island brown kiwi population.
Kiwis for Kiwi executive director Michelle Impey said the success of Rainbow Springs' Kiwi Encounter season reinforced the importance of having this skilled kiwi husbandry team and world-class facility to support the national kiwi recovery programme.
"We're so proud to be working in partnership with Kiwi Encounter to bring our strategy to life."
The Department of Conservation has also endorsed Kiwi Encounter for making a difference in the lives of kiwi.
DOC technical adviser ecology Jess Scrimgeour said it had come as no surprise that Kiwi Encounter continued to improve on their own high standard.
"The release of 133 kiwi back in to the wild this season is a real boost to kiwi conservation," she said.
Highlights of the Rainbow Springs' Kiwi Encounter 2017/18 Hatching Season:
- 133 healthy chicks raised and released
- 124 successful hatches
- An unprecedented 98.4 per cent hatch success rate
- Creating and publishing the first blog series written from the perspective of a kiwi – designed to educate the public on the life of a chick at the hatchery.
- Recording and publishing incredibly rare timelapse footage of two kiwi chicks hatching.
