Thursday, November 16, 2017
A SICK and unmonitored adult kiwi recently discovered on Moutohora (Whale Island) has conservationists surprised that the bird was not found sooner and that it was unhealthy.
Whakatane Kiwi Trust administrator Hannah Flatman said the female kiwi was found with a skin condition but was otherwise in reasonably good shape.
“They found that she has a really bad case of dermatitis, that’s why she had a lot of feather loss and her skin was quite scaly,” she said.
“Generally, kiwi on Moutohora are really healthy and they actually grow faster than birds on the mainland.
“That’s probably because there’s so much food available there. Being a predator-free island, it means they don’t have to compete with the mice and rats for the things that they eat,” she said.
Whakatane Kiwi Trust had a monitoring team on the island looking for a candidate kiwi to take part in a public celebration when their conservation dog, Aria, found the bird in a rock burrow.
Miss Flatman said the most likely scenario was that a pair must have bred successfully without their knowledge.
“She didn’t have a microchip, which means she hatched on the island as a wild kiwi from one of the adult pairs over there,” she said.
Though they confirmed the female was an adult, it was impossible to determine the actual age.
“Once they reach adult weight, it gets really hard to know how old they are,” she said.
“We start calling them adults when they’re about two years old. Kiwi can live for a really long time – sometimes more than 40 years. She could be quite old.”
The kiwi was first taken to the organisation’s Kiwi Encounter facility where eggs are incubated and hatched. But a close inspection confirmed the kiwi needed special medical attention.
“They decided she should be taken straight down to Massey University [where they have] a dedicated wildlife hospital,” she said.
The intent is to have the kiwi reintroduced into the Moutohora Island kiwi population once returned to good health.