Ruud Kleinpaste: Kiwi on the move

Last week, a collaborative group of Enthusiastic Restoration Organisations got together on Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf. They were there to celebrate an inspirational project that commenced almost two decades ago: getting kiwi on the island. 

I remember having many chats with the Late Sir Rob Fenwick and his wife Lady Jennie about making the island predator-free so that these birds (and other species) could be introduced. 

And last week, it happened…  

Ten birds (some the size of a moa!) were carefully taken from a nearby island (Pōnui) and shipped by barge to Waiheke. Pōnui got its kiwi (14 of them) in 1964 and these birds thrived there on the farm and in some forested areas, resulting in a current estimate of 1500 birds. (a huge density!) 

The Chamberlin family looked after them well and allowed Save the Kiwi to muster the first lot of birds and take these to Waiheke. 

It was a huge event with all the important organisations present: Save the Kiwi, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Te Korowai o Waiheke, DOC, the Pōnui Island Landowners and, of course, the volunteers as well as a heap of primary school kids. 

The community made this translocation possible, Mana Whenua celebrated the momentous occasion and hundreds of people arrived to be part of this event.

Over the past few years I have been visiting the Waiheke schools and suggested that the main job for the kids is to keep an eye on people walking around with their dogs. These dogs should be on a lead, no matter their size or cuteness. In an urban area, dogs are the most dangerous animals for kiwi - just one paw on the back of a kiwi is enough to cause internal damage to the bird. Even a gentle, friendly dog's playful nudge is all it takes to break a kiwi's rib bones and puncture their lungs. 

(A kiwi doesn’t fly, therefore they have no keel that holds the rib bones together!) 

The Waiheke Kids are simply the advocates for responsible dog ownership: “keep them on a lead!!” 

    

The kids were also quite innovative in designing the birds’ new “release burrows” 

This shows that Environmental Education has become “cross curricular”, with not just biology and science, but also covering creative writing, story-telling and art 

David Chamberlin (Pōnui Island landowner) revealed the most wonderful experiences of kiwi on their island: “They sometimes wandered into the houses, and made their presence known by putting their beaks through the courgettes”… “They walked over us as we have been sleeping outside and they were our alarm clocks at the wrong time of the day”… 

These translocations are really inspirational and wonderful - and I don’t know if you have followed this trend, but it’s happening more and more: Wellington, Taranaki, Nelson…. Imagine a return of kiwi everywhere!  (Save the Kiwi have this motto: We're on a mission to take kiwi from endangered to everywhere) 

 

Then driven to Te Matuku peninsula, a quiet forest with perfect conditions to recover from the journey and find food. 

In the end, the birds were carefully released in the beautiful burrows. 

They were heard calling the next day at 6pm, indicating they were happy and went about their business in normal fashion. 

I reckon they’ll be just fine there, for the next 30 or 40 years of their life.

LISTEN ABOVE

Pōnui kiwi destined for WaihekeWalking the kiwi to the marae JTBirds were briefly shown to the Waiheke audience by Save the Kiwi Trainers Emma and WillThen driven to Te Matuku peninsula, a quiet forest with perfect conditions to recover from the journey and find food.Kiwi released in forest evening

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at be Road Climb Past is.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Our man in the garden. He's here with us this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hey road hate Jack.

Speaker 4 (00:18):
I should have been in the garden because I just
realized this was the Botannic Gardens Week.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
It finishes tomorrow, and it totally went under my rade.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
What do we do for a Botanic Gardens Week? We
just go to the Botanna Gardens.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
Yeah, but also you'll find that they have most of
the good Britennic gardens that are part of it, will
have very good trees and shrubs and plants to show,
which are really important things for New Zealand's flora if
you know fauna and flora. So that's that's you know,
with kaca beek and short spurge and things like that.
But also missiletes. I saw bagger. I missed the missiletoe.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Oh never mind, I'm sorry. Yeah, because the missiletes it's
quite rere ah.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
It can be are not that ray of a chime, indeed,
but they are.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
They are parasitic plants, and then itself is quite weird,
and then you are Yeah. But instead last week I
went and knocked around with kiwi.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, and how good. So I had no idea about
this until you drew my attention to it. But they
have released Kiwi on Wayhiki Island.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yeah, we did that last Friday. Indeed, it was a
really big lot of enthusiastic restoration organizations and it was
started years and years decades ago by me old made
the late Sir Robert Finnick, he was a name in
conservation and his wife Lady Finnick, Lady Jenny, so so

(01:43):
he started it off and for me it was quite
actually emotional, because Rob and I were always talking about
doing this and here it was.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
It was amazing. Ten birds were translocated from Panui Island,
which is.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Next door to Waitehiki yep, and they were literally that
was that was unbelievable. There were groups like the Key
we did trust that I'm bad off, but also Nati
Power and night thaik Tamaki, Wahiki Doc Phoonoi Island landowners,

(02:16):
volunteers and primary school kids of course, because I trained
those to be kiwi.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
If you're like Kiwi helpers for the rest of the life.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
What I mean, so where do they go on the island?
I mean presumably well down in the middle of enjoying.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
And they will be there. They will be going there.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Really, I'm quite I'm quite convinced they well, yeah, they will.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
But in the meantime, those ten we were put on
the east coast, on the south where Robin Jenny used
to live actually, and that is a fabulously credative free
forest with really nice, nice vegetation and things like that.
But they do go to urban areas because we've got

(03:01):
them in all sorts of urban areas, places like Fatani
and fucking heads and things like that there you But anyway,
in an urban area, what do you think jack is
the most dangerous animal for a.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Kiwi in an urban area, I would say, ah, a
rat or as a dog. It'll be a dog.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's definitely as a dog.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
And there is something like sixteen hundred dogs on the island.
So what I did over the last couple of months
or actually last year, I talked to the kids about
them becoming my kiwi.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
If you're like.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Helpers by looking after or actually explaining to people that
have their dog off a lead, you know, to say,
excuse me, do you know that they don't have wings?
And therefore they don't have a keel, and therefore all
their bones inside their body are not attached to each other.
That means that even a small dog would put a

(03:58):
leg on top of a kiwi, it can crusty inside
of the bird within. Yeah, it's sad stuff. So these
kids are going to be my embassadors. And I always this.
You'll find this later on too. Try saying no to
a ten year old.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, no, it's good. It's a very a little psychological
trick there first. What can be a bit of a
slightly confrontational, awkward conversation. No, that's very wise. I mean,
so do you reckon like if you you know, if
you look at this, you're trying and remove all by
us from the equation. Do you think we could get

(04:34):
to a state where we actually see kiwi and many
more urban environments, because I mean, we have native bush
all around the country. But you know it, is it
inconceivable we could have kiwi and the white hockety rangers
and that kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
Absolutely, We've we've got them in Wellington, We've got him
in Tara Nikki, we have them in Nelson, now you know,
And as I said, what was that fun? They heads
they're just running around it. And the cool thing was
that that David Chamberlain, that landowner witially donated those kiwi.
He wrote the most amazing pros about he said, because

(05:09):
they had them on Pono since nineteen sixty four. They
are fifteen hundred kibi on that island. They would say, sometimes.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
They wander into our houses and make their prison stone.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
By putting their beaks through the coursettes, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
It's brilliant.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, oh, that's so amazing. We're going to make sure
photos are on the news Talks i'd Be website. Thank you, Rude.
It sounds like a really special day.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to News Talks i'd Be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio