Thanks to the ‘smart technology’ of the chick timers we have on eight of our adult kiwi in the Whangarei Heads, we know that they are ‘getting up’ at around 6.00pm, and are active for 11 to 12 hours at the moment. This is not all that unusual for this time of year.

We also know that they are tending to hang around in the gullies and damper areas, where insect numbers have held up.  Not surprising.

And finally we know that it won’t be a good year for kiwi chick numbers, with most kiwi only having a single clutch of eggs, and none of the monitored birds having the possible 3 clutches. The young kiwi are probably being pushed out to the drier, tougher environments where they are more at risk from uncontrolled dogs and other predators.

But with the huge cricket population brought on by the drought conditions, some of those kiwi will be in lush ‘pasture’.  In fact, results from kiwi chicks monitored by DOC in Northland show that one bird reached 1200g at a little under 6 months old – the only one to have done so out of hundreds of chicks over the years. Another reached 1kg at 139 days old (record to 1 kg has been 131 days, it wasn’t far behind).

So, as long as we keep on with the predator control,  and people continue to keep their dogs under control, and we watch for kiwi on the roads at night – our kiwi populations will continue to grow despite a bit of a trough of kiwi recruitment this year due to the bad drought conditions.

Todd Hamilton

Project Manager, WHLF
021 1145 385