All About Kiwi Birds

Why I Care About Kiwis

Since my nickname is Kiwi I decided to write an article on kiwi birds. I started by watching a video and got really sad because the video said that kiwi birds were endangered. So I wrote this article to spread awareness about kiwi birds.

Kiwi Evolution

The ancestors of the kiwi birds flew from Madagascar and Australia to New Zealand. Since they were able to fly such long distances the they probably had strong wings. Once they settled down in New Zealand they didn't use their wings, as there were no land predators to hunt them. Slowly, after many many generations they evolved to have small and weak wings that could not lift them any more.

When we humans came to New Zealand, we brought other animals (land predators), like stoats, weasels, cats, and dogs who hunted the kiwi birds. Defenseless against these introduced predators, the kiwi bird became endangered. Sadly, we continue to lose 2 percent of them every year.

Kiwi Features

Kiwi birds have mammalian and bird-like features. Their feathers are fur like in shape. They moult, which means they drop feathers and re-grow them, through out the year. Kiwi birds also have whiskers like cats.

Most birds have hollow bones as they need to be light to fly, but kiwi birds have bones full of bone marrow as they are flightless.

Most kiwi bird females have 1 ovary, but some have 2 ovaries.

Kiwi birds have nostrils on the end of their beak, and their sense of smell is very strong. Since kiwi birds have stout and powerful legs, they are fast runners.

Types of Kiwis

The country of New Zealand is made up of many many islands. There are 2 big islands called North Island and South Island.

Image obtained from Wikipedia

• Roroa lives in the north west of South Island and it’s scientific name is Apertex Haastii. Little Spotted Kiwi lives scattered around the tiny islands of New Zealand and it’s scientific name is Apertex Owenii.

• Rowi lives in the middle of the west coast of South Island and it’s scientific name is Apertex Rowi.

• Common Kiwi is found in the south-west coast of South Island and in Stewart Island which is a part of South Land . It’s scientific name is Apertex Australius.

• North Island Brown Kiwi lives in North Island and it’s scientific name is Apertex Manteil.

Kiwi birds are nocturnal. In the daytime kiwi birds live in giant holes in the ground called kiwi nests. Kiwi birds come out at night to hunt, play and eat. Kiwi birds usually live for 25-50 years.

Conservation of Kiwis

The Department of Conservation monitors the male kiwi birds for those incubating egg. When the eggs are partially incubated, they take them from the male kiwi and give the eggs to the kiwi hatchery which artificially completes the incubation process. The process of incubation takes 78 days. Then the egg hatches. After that, they raise the kiwi till it is 1kg in weight. Then the Department of Conservation returns it to the wild. The kiwi egg weighs 450 grams which is 25% of the weight of the adult kiwi bird.