Kiwi Conservation at Rainbow Springs

Kiwi Conservation at Rainbow Springs

n 1995 Rainbow Springs became involved in the Bank of New Zealand’s ‘Save the Kiwi’ recovery Programme with the arrival of a kiwi egg that had been abandoned. Up to that point all the eggs that were incubated at Rainbow Springs were from the captive breeding birds.

That first egg came from the Tongariro Forest Kiwi Sanctuary but now we receive eggs from 13 conservancies and community kiwi trusts around the North Island.

The programme is managed by the Department of Conservation, the Kiwi Recovery trust and institutes like ourselves who co-ordinate all kiwi recovery work in New Zealand. This includes research work being done to monitor kiwi but it also provides ‘in field’ support that result in kiwi eggs being delivered to what is now called Kiwi Encounter, Rainbow Springs.

How does it work ? - The Department of Conservation staff and field teams monitor male kiwi and when they have established incubation of eggs in the field, teams then lift the eggs from the burrows and bring them to us partially incubated.

We complete the incubation artificially (Kiwi eggs take approx 78 days to incubate in artificial conditions, slight longer when in the wild) and raise the chicks to 1kg in weight. They are then returned to the wild by D.O.C. staff.

With the increase in knowledge and success rate at hatching the numbers of eggs brought to Rainbow Springs rapidly increased over first few years and Rainbow Springs needed more resources to continue this valuable conservation work.

This included incubation equipment, brooders in the nursery, specialist husbandry staff and additional outdoor enclosures. Rainbow Springs has always funded this work solely off its 'bottom line".

After discussions with conservation partners, internal research and strategic planning, a decision was made to re-invest in a new facility that would be open for public admission and enable New Zealanders and international visitors to see the work being undertaken. In late April 2004 we opened Kiwi Encounter.

The benefits for kiwi conservation are:

1. We have greater capacity to handle more eggs and chicks.

2. A team of qualified staff and specialist equipment now to do more conservation work.

3. Kiwi Encounter is a wonderful educational facility for the advocacy of kiwi.

4. People visiting Kiwi Encounter will now be helping to fund this facility thereby directly

Contributing To Kiwi Conservation

The opening of Kiwi Encounter has also provided an ideal facility for the continuation of research. Areas currently under research are the refinement of incubation parameters for kiwi eggs in force draft incubators, matting trials to monitor the effect of different substrates for young chicks in the brooder room prior to them going outside. And growth rates and coccidia screening trials for disease management.

Kiwi Encounter – The Attraction

Kiwi Encounter provides an opportunity for visitors to see “conservation in action”. Visitors have the unique chance to see where specialised husbandry staff carrying out incubation, hatching and raising of kiwi chicks for release back into the wild.

The guided tour includes a modern, open plan nocturnal area (home to our captive kiwi) and predator proof outdoor enclosures.

Comprehensive and dynamic visual displays help to create an understanding of the complexities of New Zealand’s national icon, their current plight in the wild in New Zealand and our conservation efforts to preserve them.

ENDS

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