New Zealand Kiwi delight

Along a windswept ridge line on Wellington’s south coast, above the pounding sea and in the shadows of whirring wind turbines, 11 kiwi – New Zealand’s treasured national bird – are making themselves at home for the first time in generations.

The flightless birds endemic to the country have been busy in the week since their arrival. They have each moved out of their temporary human-made homes and begun digging burrows into the hillsides with their strong claws. Soon they will line their dens with leaves, soft moss and feathers in preparation for their enormous alabaster-like eggs.

The kiwi, who will be monitored closely, are the first cohort of 250 that will be introduced to the wilds around the capital over the next six years.

It is difficult to know exactly when kiwi disappeared from the city but some conservationists believe they have been absent for more than 100 years. An estimated 12 million kiwi once roamed the country, but introduced predators and habitat loss has driven those numbers to worrying lows – 68,000 at the last estimate.

The arrival of kiwi in Wellington represents years of hard work by conservationists, the establishment of the country’s biggest intensive stoat trapping network, and enthusiastic buy-in from the community, including those who would not typically be viewed as conservation allies.

The birds’ release was an especially moving moment for the man who spearheaded the project. “You know how people say they get goose-bumps? I describe it as kiwi-bumps,” said Paul Ward, a self-described bird nerd who, in 2018, put his film career to one side to establish the Capital Kiwi Project – a community conservation project dedicated to reintroducing a wild kiwi population back to the capital.

Four years later, and the NZ $4.5m ($2.8m) project, which receives much of its funding through Predator Free 2050 (a nationwide pest eradication plan), has ticked off its first major goal. A ceremony took place last month at Mākara primary school involving 300 people from the Capital Kiwi Project, iwi (tribes), the local community, conservation enthusiasts and landowners.

The project’s iwi liaison and field specialist, Rawiri Walsh, who is also mana whenua – meaning his iwi has territorial rights over the wider Wellington region – said kiwi are a taonga, a treasure, and thought the ceremony felt like a celebration of life.

“Everyone just assumed kiwi would always be here, until they weren’t – and that sense of loss was profound,” Walsh said.

The birds – gifted by Ngāti Hinewai hapū (a subtribe) – have been relocated more than 400km from the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House to the Mākara community, about 25 minutes from Wellington’s city centre. Among the feathered group is a mating pair – a 40-year-old matriarch the size of a turkey called Anahera, and her beau, Nouveau, 32 years her junior.

“When Anahera came out, she had this mesmerising power – you could feel the hush in the crowd. Most of those people had never seen a kiwi before,” Ward said.

Over the past four years, a team of volunteers and the project’s staff have installed 4,500 stoat-traps – the largest intensive stoat-trapping network of its kind in the country.

Kiwi, while vulnerable to bigger predators such as dogs, are wellequipped with strong fighting claws to attack smaller pests, and the sheer size and thickness of their eggs helps to keep predators at bay. But kiwi chicks are vulnerable, especially to stoats.

Kiwi are remarkably resilient birds, Ward said, noting that they can make themselves at home almost anywhere as long as there is food.

Community buy-in has been evident throughout the project, said Ward, who held countless meetings in wool sheds, village halls and cafes, where everyone they approached gave a resounding “yes” to wanting kiwi back in the capital.

Some of the most surprising groups throwing their weight behind the projects have been mountain bikers and a 4WD drive club, who monitor 600 traps along the coastline, Ward said. “They are stereotyped as petrol heads but they are actually some of our most passionate and dedicated trappers.”

That broad buy-in is a significant reason why Wellington is one of the few capital cities that is reversing its biodiversity loss and can boast a booming native bird population.

Stephen Hartley, the director of the centre for biodiversity and restoration ecology at Victoria University of Wellington, said: “Wellington is at the far extreme of having the greatest level of engagement from council and from the community.”