North Island brown kiwi have been making a bit of a din at night this year in Kerikeri's Rangitāne Reserve. Photo / NZME
North Island brown kiwi have been making a bit of a din at night this year in Kerikeri's Rangitāne Reserve. Photo / NZME
Kiwi calls have reached a record high at Kerikeri’s Rangitāne Reserve.
The Kerikeri Peninsula Conservation Charitable Trust (KPCCT), which has monitored the site for 30 years, this year recorded 24.9 calls per hour - a marked increase from 1995’s 14 calls an hour.
Graphs on the trust’s websiteshow a five-year moving average has also increased from 9.6 in 1999 to 17.4 in 2025.
The results come from volunteers who listen for two hours a night over four nights.
Electronic listening devices are also used in the research each year and while they don’t have the range of the human ear, can pick up closer calls, the trust said.
Electronic recordings show the different graphic patterns between male and female kiwi calls. Photo / Supplied
The devices are left out for five nights and programmed to record from 6pm until midnight.
The audio files are then run through a free software kit to identify potential kiwi calls.
Listen to the difference between a male and female kiwi call here.
The result highlighted “that everyone has a part to play and something to gain from it”.
“No single organisation or agency can get us to the Predator Free 2050 goal,” Morgan said.
“Community groups like the KPCCT are showing what’s possible, maintaining reserve traplines, running backyard trap networks and monitoring biodiversity.“
“Just as importantly, it builds community buy-in and momentum for the predator-free mission. So when a major eradication project arrives, there’s already a network of traps, local knowledge and a community of willing volunteers ready to go,” Morgan said.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast
