Kiwi gets wrong end of egg
ROTORUA: Kicking through the wrong end of an egg is a tiring entry into the world for a kiwi.
Luckily, the chick from Moehau, at the top of the Coromandel Peninsula, had been dropped off at
Kiwi Encounter hatchery at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua, and successfully hatched with a little bit of lastminute help.
‘‘This occasionally happens, that the chick tries to come out the wrong way,’’ assistant kiwi husbandry manager Emma Bean said.
‘‘Kiwi use their strong legs to push their way out of the egg.
‘‘Instead of coming out headfirst through the blunt end of the egg, this chick tried to come out legs first out the pointy end.
‘‘This chick had worn itself out trying to hatch legs first so we needed to give it a helping hand at the very end of the hatch.
‘‘In the wild, the dad may have been able to provide some sort of assistance, but in reality this chick may have not have made it.’’
The chick’s dad’s name is Sky, and this is his second chick.
The chick weighed 357g when it hatched on March 24.
In the wild, there is a 50% hatch success, but at Kiwi Encounter, there is a 95% hatch success each season.
Kiwi Encounter is the largest hatchery of brown kiwi and is crucial in kiwi conservation.
During this 201617 hatch season, which is drawing to a close, 124 kiwi chicks have hatched from around the North Island.
‘‘We’ve got one more egg yet to hatch, and more eggs due to arrive during the week, so it’s been a busy season,’’ Ms Bean said.
‘‘The last couple of years, only 100 chicks have hatched each season at Rainbow Springs and we have attributed this to the long, dry summers.
‘‘Last winter was a mild one and we’ve had a soggy summer, which has been great for young kiwi as invertebrates, their food source, are closer to the surface and make for easier pickings.’’
Once hatched, the chicks stay at Kiwi Encounter until they are a healthy ‘‘stoatproof’’ weight of 1kg.
They are then released back to their home in the wild where they have a 65% survival rate, instead of just 5% if they were left to hatch in a nonpredator controlled environment in their natural habitat. — NZME