Eastern Brown Kiwi, successfully reproducing inside the Cape Sanctuary
North Island Eastern Brown Kiwi Successfully breeding inside the Cape Sanctuary
We have two groups of Brown Kiwi at the Cape, our own population that is into its third breeding generation, and creched juvenile kiwi we return to their original habitat.
The Cape provides a nursery for Kiwi hatched from eggs in areas where predation limits survival rates. They are hatched at the Rainbow Springs hatchery, who look after them until they are able to survive outside their creche, and send them to us at the Cape Sanctuary.
We provide these orphan kiwi with a habitat that has very limited predators compared to their natural habitat so they can grow to approximately one kilogram. This is the weight that allows them to deal with most predators. Once they reach this weight we return them to the wild, usually from the place where their eggs came from.
Our own population of Eastern Brown Kiwi have been successfully reproducing inside the sanctuary, with at least eighty breeding pairs. We are getting close to the maximum carrying capacity for Kiwi in the Cape Sanctuary. We expect that we will be working with DoC to translocate some of our population to other appropriate sites.
Current Status Thriving. Our own population is using most of the Sanctuary that are viable Kiwi habitat and we expect to be translocating Kiwi to other sites on an ongoing basis.
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