Aja Pendergrast, Auckland Zoo
Check out this unique and precious Operation Nest Egg (ONE) kiwi chick!
You may remember the kiwi chick with white eyebrows from earlier this year... well this kiwi chick has really dialed up the volume!
The offspring of kiwi Māpuku (meaning white belly in Māori) this wee kiwi has continued the family legacy with one pure white leg, white-dipped toes on its other foot and little dashes of white across its belly.
Bird keeper Debs is holding this ‘kōhanga kiwi’, who has recently been released on to Motutapu Island as part of our conservation Wild Work with Kiwis for kiwi and Thames Coast Kiwi Care, to establish a permanent breeding population there.
In the future, kiwi chicks that are born on Motutapu will be released elsewhere to create new populations of kiwi, so that we can reliably grow wild kiwi populations in Aotearoa.
