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.