Chick cracks it for New Year entrance
It’s a New Year baby story with a twist — or with a long beak, to be precise.
After five long days working to get out of its shell, the first kiwi chick of 2019 was born at the National Kiwi Hatchery at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua.
The chick made its way into the world at 9am on January 1, weighing just 328.2g.
The kiwi’s sex — and therefore name — won’t be known for a while, as the feathers need to be sent away for testing.
Hatchery staff had been working around the clock in the festive period as the kiwi hatching season reached the halfway point, kiwi husbandry manager Emma Bean said.
“We’ve had over 80 chicks hatch from the first clutch of eggs, which have been arriving since October. The second clutch has now started to arrive, and the hatching season will run through until April,” she said.
“We often have birds hatching over the holidays, so it has been work as usual for the team.
“We were here on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day celebrating with the chicks, they even got a few extra bugs for their Christmas lunch . . . this little chick will now be trying to bulk up, so it can reach its stoat-proof weight of 1kg.”
Bean said, on average, it took 78 days of incubation before an egg hatched.
“The kiwi chick then lives at the hatchery for four weeks before heading to a sanctuary or to an outside habitat here at Rainbow Springs to grow up to 1kg before being released back into the forest.”