Kiwi trusts achieve first major milestone

Kiwi volunteers, trustees, and contributing land-owners came together last month to celebrate the 30th kiwi release under the Taranaki Kohanga Kiwi at Rotokare project.

The joint project between the Taranaki Kiwi Trust and Rotokare Scenic Reserve Trust has been a huge undertaking says Taranaki Kiwi Trust chairperson Sue Hardwick-Smith.

The arrival of the 30th kiwi to the kohanga site has been the goal for the two trusts since the beginning of the joint project. In the middle of 2012 the first kiwi arrived at the kohanga site and since then thousands of hours have been put in to the project.

"It's not just about getting 30 kiwi into a predator-free breeding site, but for this project establishing a genetically unrelated founding population was always a priority," Sue says.

"This important element not only sets this breeding population up in the best way possible, but has meant an enormous amount of work, which in turn has increased important skills of volunteers."

Mike Weren, chairman of the Rotokare Scenic Reserve Trust, says "if we had simply focused on establishing a kiwi population of 30 founders, we could have worked intensively in only a few Taranaki forests to achieve the outcome. Instead, we have worked in more than 30 locations throughout the region, it has been an incredible undertaking by many people over the past two and a half years. An amazing result all of Taranaki can be proud of".

Rotokare Sanctuary manager Simon Collins says the future of this project is massive.

"From here we develop a system of ongoing population surveys at the kohanga site, so we can effectively manage the overall kiwi numbers. Periodically, we will be able to release large numbers of kiwi to appropriate sites all over Taranaki, at a fraction of the cost traditionally spent on returning kiwi to the wild. Imagine, instead of releasing one kiwi at a time, we will be able to release kiwi in tens at a time".

As the Taranaki Kiwi Trust and Rotokare Scenic Reserve Trust celebrate successfully achieving their goal of establishing a 30-strong genetically unrelated kiwi breeding population, they look forward to the first "export" from the project, which will likely take place as early as 2016.

The project has received support from the Department of Conservation, local iwi, landowners, volunteers and funders, and many local sponsors. Funding for the $100,000 project has come from the Kiwis for Kiwi Trust, Lotteries Environment and Heritage Board, Pub Charity, and local major sponsors DFE Pharma, FEATS Taranaki, OMV and Harris Taylor.