only North Island brown kiwi are held in captive breeding situations. The other species are dealt with through Operation Nest Egg (ONE) which does the job admirably. Basically, because most kiwi chicks are killed by introduced mammalian predators, the eggs are removed from wild birds (e.g. in the case of the Okarito brown kiwi [rowi] I think all eggs are removed from the wild every season), artificially incubated, and the chicks are released at a size where they are less vulnerable to predation. The chicks are "head-started" in predator-free environments first (e.g. offshore islands) before being released back in range. This also provides opportunities for establishing new populations outside the relict range areas (in the case of rowi there have been starter populations put on a couple of islands including Blumine in the article above).
well say there are fifty breeding pairs in the wild (just a made-up number by the way) and all the eggs are taken. That's fifty chicks successfully reared for that year as opposed to only two or three. The numbers can be raised very quickly (in theory) through ONE intervention. (I don't know off-hand how many eggs of rowi are incubated each year; I'd have to do a specific search for it).Chlidonias, I appreciate that very much, I just was wondering how quickly the ONE programme can / could annually speed up the numbers game - which is so acutely needed in this kiwi species - to benefit its entire population.
Surely, this chick reared is a feat that underlines the ONE program's efficacy.
Okarito brown kiwi (Apteryx rowi). It is restricted now to the Okarito area on the West Coast but formerly occurred right up the west coast and across the southern North Island. Total population is somewhere in the region of 300 birds. There's a couple of new-ish translocated island populations as well.Which Kiwi species - english species name- is a 'Rowi' ?
yes they do, but only if the egg is taken early enough in the season to allow a second to be laid.