Mahurangi kiwis return to their Northland habitats

A group of Mahurangi kiwis, living a long way from their homelands in Northland, got the chance to return to their ancestral stomping grounds this month, following the successful completion of a kiwi relocation project.

The 12 kiwis were living on Motuora Island, a bird sanctuary off the Mahurangi East coast, which is predator-free.

The kiwi population on Motuora was bred from chicks taken to the island from Northland sanctuaries.

The idea was that some would return to the mainland when they were big enough to fend for themselves.

The 12 birds were collected by volunteers from the Pukenui Western Hills Forest Trust, who scrambled around all night armed with torches and headlamps to locate and capture the birds.

Trustee Tanya Cook says kiwis can be surprisingly fast.

“And they can disappear under the undergrowth much faster than we can,” she says.

Once captured, the birds were brought by boat to Sandspit Wharf. From there they were taken to Pukenui Forest, west of Whangarei.

Kiwi have not been seen in Pukenui for years, despite efforts to locate them by kiwi sniffer dogs and listening devices.

Tanya says the aim was to secure six males and six females. They found it hard to determine the sex of the smaller birds, but she believes they got a relatively even gender balance.

The birds are the first the trust has relocated to Pukenui, part of a programme that will ultimately see the transfer of 40 birds to the forest from Motuora and elsewhere, which the trust hopes will create a sustaining population.  

The relocation came after several years of work by the trust to eliminate predators from Pukenui to ensure that the kiwis would survive.

The trust also had to secure permission for the relocation from local Iwi and the Department of Conservation.

A Powhiri was held at Maunu Primary School attended by around 400 people, including tangata whenua and school children, to bless the birds and welcome them back to Northland.

The birds were then taken deep into the Pukenui Forest where predator-control efforts have been most vigorous.

It is hoped Pukenui could eventually sustain a population of more than 1,000 kiwis. They would then likely spread out to neighbouring farmland and people’s backyards.

“Our aim is to have kiwis everywhere,” Tanya says.