New kiwi season underway at Rainbow Springs

News Release

New kiwi season underway at Rainbow Springs

Rotorua, 20 August 2012 – The 2012-2013 kiwi hatching season is underway at Rainbow Springs with the recent arrival of two eggs.

Sired by Waiau the eggs were brought in from Maungataniwha (in the Hawkes Bay area) and are the first for the season which runs through until mid-2013.

Claire Travers, Kiwi Encounter Kiwi Husbandry Manager says, "It's shaping up to be a good season with a steady flow of eggs expected this month leading up to the busy months of September onwards."

Rainbow Springs National Kiwi Trust Kiwi Encounter facility is the largest hatchery of North Island brown kiwis and successfully hatched its 1,000 kiwi named Mille - French for one-thousand - in September last year.

The kiwi eggs are kept safe and warm until they hatch, allowing the newborn chicks to get a strong start in life away from predators such as stoats and cats. Once the chicks reach a healthy weight of around 1kg they are returned to the wild.

Rainbow Springs involvement in kiwi conservation began in 1995 with the arrival of an orphaned egg and the hatchery has grown over the years to become the largest kiwi hatching facility in New Zealand, successfully incubating and hatching brown kiwi eggs from around the North Island.

ENDS

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