"World's rarest kiwi species return to North Island"
- Thread starter Surroundx
- Start date
I'm a bit confused by the articles saying they are "returning to the North Island for the first time in hundreds of years". The Okarito kiwi (rowi) is a South Island species, and is too closely related to North Island brown kiwi for them to have co-existed in the North Island in the past.
EDIT: I love learning new stuff! Rowi have had a bit of a turbulent taxonomic past, originally being included in the South Island subspecies (australis) of brown kiwi but then when brown kiwi were split they were included in the North Island species (and there was a suggestion they were artificially introduced to Okarito by Maori in pre-European times), and then finally they were split as a distinct species of their own. I had thought it was established they were always solely a South Island bird, but I queried this elsewhere and it turns out that studies of ancient mtDNA (published in 2008) have shown that the brown kiwi in the lower North Island were rowi and the middle/upper North Island were North Island brown kiwi, with no overlap between the two species.
EDIT: I love learning new stuff! Rowi have had a bit of a turbulent taxonomic past, originally being included in the South Island subspecies (australis) of brown kiwi but then when brown kiwi were split they were included in the North Island species (and there was a suggestion they were artificially introduced to Okarito by Maori in pre-European times), and then finally they were split as a distinct species of their own. I had thought it was established they were always solely a South Island bird, but I queried this elsewhere and it turns out that studies of ancient mtDNA (published in 2008) have shown that the brown kiwi in the lower North Island were rowi and the middle/upper North Island were North Island brown kiwi, with no overlap between the two species.
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zooboy28
Well-Known Member
Very interesting. It would also be interesting to know when and why they disappeared from their North Island range.
As an extra question, what species of kiwi did the Southern Encounter Aquarium & Kiwi House hold, and for that matter what does the National Kiwi Centre exhibit? Are there any Rowi or Southern Browns in captivity?
Edit: According to the thread on NZ birds, neither species are kept on display anywhere, still the case?
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the ones at Southern Encounter were North Island brown kiwi, as are the ones at Hokitika's National Kiwi Centre (in a neat twist, our female at Hokitika is the first chick from the pair we had at Southern Encounter, who hatched out on the day of the first earthquake).zooboy28 said:
Willowbank used to hatch out all the rowi eggs for ONE but now they are all done at the West Coast Wildlife Centre at Franz Josef, and they (the latter) also have some on display in a nocturnal house.
Apart for the rowi at Franz Josef, the only non-North Island brown kiwi on display are the great spotted pair at Otorohanga (I'm not entirely sure if Otorohanga's little spotted kiwi are on display or not?).
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zooboy28
Well-Known Member
Thanks for that, I shall add West Coast Wildlife to my South Island trip itinerary for later this year. That could be a day trip from Christchurch ae? I would go to Hokitika too but $18.50 each seems excessive.
West Coast Wildlife Centre is $25 ($20 for students), or $40 for a behind-the-scenes tour.
I'm sure I can let you into the National Kiwi Centre for free...
From Chch to Hokitika is about four hours, and then Franz Josef's about another two hours further on.
p.s. (I edited the earlier post): do you know if the little spotted kiwi at Otorohanga are actually on display? Or only the great spotted kiwi and North Island brown kiwi?
zooboy28
Well-Known Member
Wow, $20 is a lot, and I would probably want to do the $40 version to make sure I see enough kiwi to make it worthwhile. Do they just have the two kiwi, no other species? Thats what the website suggests.
I may well take you up on that offer, thank you very much.
I am 99.9% sure there are no Little Spots on display, just the North Island Browns in one exhibit and the Greater Spots in the other. The Little Spots, some anyway, are in a nearby patch of bush, essentially free-range behind the predator-proof fence, so theres very little (no) chance of seeing any of them. This is what I remember anyway, could be a little wrong.
I thought they had four kiwi on display at Franz Josef but I'm not sure (I haven't been down there yet); I think they are young birds that get changed over as they grow up. The reason its so expensive is because Franz Josef as a town only exists to waylay tourists to the glacier so everything there is expensive. I would honestly suggest you instead (or also) do the $75 Okarito kiwi tour at Okarito itself and see the rowi in the wild (Okarito kiwi adventure tours – low impact eco tours Okarito, South Westland).
With the little spotteds at Otorohanga, I actually just figured out why I had listed them as "on display" in the NZ bird list: they are housed in an outdoor area but you can see them (if lucky) on one of their night-time tours ($40), so while not visible to the regular daytime visitors they are still on show to those on the nocturnal tours.