Native Encounter

It was all happening at the zoo today.

At noon, we met the Indian elephants, Kashin and Burma, who obediently showed us their teeth, toes and tails and demonstrated their logging skills.

The highlight though was the native fauna encounter a few hours later. We were introduced to the tuatara, an endangered reptile from the prehistoric order Sphenodontia, and to the North Island kaka, a large forest parrot.

And then a fluffy brown Northland kiwi was released from its hidiing place under a tree trunk.

The kiwi is a nocturnal bird and so our new friend was rather sleepy but when she perked up, we were amazed at the speed at which she dashed towards worms, her beak bobbing up and down.

Here she is as she was waking up:


The population of the North Island brown kiwi stands at about 25,000 with 8000 of those living in Northland. About 90% of kiwi chicks die in their first six months, victims of dogs, cats and introduced wild mammals like the stoat and rat. The population is slowly being rebuilt thanks to breeding programmes. Eggs are incubated at the University of Victoria in Wellington and youngsters are homed on outlying island reserves. Pest free areas are also being created on the mainland in a bid to preserve the bird in its native habitat.