Today’s photo shows one of the Coromandel brown kiwi relocated to predator-free Motutapu Island in the Hauraki Gulf last week.
It was the biggest ever single translocation of Coromandel brown kiwi and was done to create new diversity and future-proof the species.
Did you know?
- There are only around 1,500 Coromandel brown kiwi on the Coromandel Peninsula.
There are 5 kiwi species:
- Little spotted kiwi on several offshore islands and at Karori Sanctuary in Wellington
- Great spotted kiwi/roroa in the northern South Island
- Brown kiwi in the North Island
- Rowi at Okarito, on the West Coast of the South Island
- Tokoeka in the South Island (Fiordland, the Haast Range and on Stewart Island) and on Kapiti Island.
2 of the 5 kiwi species have distinct geographical varieties within them:
- Brown kiwi have four geographically and genetically distinct forms: Northland, Coromandel, western and eastern.
- Tokoeka also have four distinct geographical forms: Haast, northern Fiordland, southern Fiordland, and Stewart Island.
