Kiwi Encounter welcomes 100th kiwi chick for the season

The chick, pictured with Claire Travers

News Release

Kiwi Encounter welcomes 100th kiwi chick for the season

Rotorua, 26 February 2015: The 100th kiwi chick for the season has just hatched at Rainbow Springs' Kiwi Encounter.

The new arrival, from the Coromandel region, weighed in at a healthy 331grams and needed a little bit of help to break out of its shell.

Kiwi Encounter Husbandry Manager Claire Travers says, "The chick wasn't progressing quite as well as it should, so I helped it along by making a couple of lateral cracks in the egg shell to make the hatch process a little easier."

The chick has been named Leslie by Kiwi Experience bus tour driver Jess Hitchman, who was very excited to bring a group to Kiwi Encounter today to see the chick. Kiwi Experience are sponsors of Kiwi Encounter and recently brought their 1,000th visitor to the park.

Jess chose the name in recognition of iconic West Coast, Lake Mahinapua Hotel owner Leslie, who passed away recently. The hotel is a regular stop for Kiwi Experience tours and Leslie was loved by all, Jess says.

Kiwi Encounter is a charitable trust and relies on funding to enable its kiwi conservation work to continue. Eggs are brought in from around the upper North Island where they are incubated, hatched and nurtured until they weigh a healthy 1kg in weight, increasing their chances of survival in the wild. The chicks are then released back to their natural environment.

The sex of a chick isn't known at birth, it's revealed by DNA found at the tip of the feather shaft where it enters the bird's skin, and requires laboratory analyis at Massey University to determine.

Kiwi Encounter usually hatches around 120 eggs every season, the majority from the wild. Leslie was the 1,423rd kiwi chick to hatch at Kiwi Encounter.

To donate, or sponsor a kiwi, visit http://www.rainbowsprings.co.nz/donate

Rainbow Springs is an icon of New Zealand tourism, and has been open since 1932. Set in acres of Rotorua parkland, Rainbow Springs has a strong conservation drive and is a breeding haven for endangered native species like the Kiwi and tuatara. Features of the award winning tourist attraction include New Zealand’s only “open to view” Kiwi hatchery, Kiwi Encounter, the Big Splash water ride and a range of wildlife including trout, tuatara and native birds. Rainbow Springs is part of Ngāi Tahu Tourism's tourism portfolio.

ENDS

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