Native dads doing their bit for conservation

To celebrate Father’s Day, we look at a few of our New Zealand dads doing their bit to ensure the survival of our native species.

Here’s some of our favourite dad pics.

Northland brown kiwi dad sitting on his nest.

For kiwi, dads are usually the ones sitting on the nest. Brown and little spotted kiwi dads look after the egg for the entire time, while in other species of kiwi the mum will also take a turn. This is a big job, with kiwi egg incubation taking 70 or 80 days, twice as long as other birds.

Archey’s frog dad and his little froglet. © Martin Hunter

Archey’s frog dads look after their young by carrying them around on their back.

Yellow-eyed penguin dad with his chick. © Department of Conservation by Rod Morris

Yellow-eyed penguin parents take turns sitting on the nest, and take turns guarding their chicks for six weeks after they hatch too.

Whio/blue duck mum and dad with their six ducklings. Photo: Tyrone Smith

In many duck species dads don’t help incubate their eggs, mum does all of the hard yards. This isn’t the case with our native whio/blue ducks though, with dads taking turns sitting on the nest, and sticking with their family for two or three months afterwards until their chicks are big enough to fend for themselves.

Royalcam chick Tūmanako’s dad BK does a good job too, which is lucky considering his parenting is video streamed live! Check out the live stream and if you’re lucky you might see BK bringing Tūmanako a tasty regurgitated seafood meal. Yum.

Happy Father’s Day to all dads out there!