It’s official, the public’s choice of most popular bird for 2009 is….. the kiwi. The decision wasn’t an easy one with more than 11,000 people taking part in Forest and Bird’s closely contested public poll to pick the national favorite.
Now it just so happened that a couple of weeks before this happened I had been photographing a lucky little Haast tokoeka chick called Button saved from stoats and saved again after twisting up inside its egg. When I heard about the poll I thought “wow” this is also a great tribute to the people who are quietly working their butts off to prevent this species from extinction. Without these people only 5% of kiwi chicks make it in the wild. Very slim odds.
So what does it take to keep a species from the brink in the wild? Over the next few months we’ll get involved with the remotest of the rarest kiwi, the awesome Haast tokoeka, we’ll also have a look a good look at BNZ Operation Nest Egg.
Keep up the great work!