Four kiwis have been given travel exemptions to allow them to be relocated to the Hauraki Gulf’s Rotoroa Island, as part of a conservation programme.
On Wednesday morning, the four chicks made the trip from the Crombie Lockwood Kiwi Burrow in Taupō and from the National Hatchery in Rotorua to the predator-free island.
The four chicks, named Will, Nena, Kapow and Baffle, range in ages from Nena at 17 days and 311g to Will at 68 days and 540g.
“It’s a real privilege for Rotoroa Island to be home to these precious taonga at the kiwi’s most vulnerable stage of life.
"Being a wildlife sanctuary and a predator free island, we can protect and nurture them until they are big enough to fend off a predator,” Rotoroa Island Trust ecologist Jo Ritchie said.
“So we act as a kind of kōhanga/creche until they grow up. It takes a village to raise a child but it will take the whole country to save the kiwi species - so we are really proud to play our own part in this,” she said.
Chicks in the wild have about a five per cent survival rate.
The relocation of the chicks is known as Operation Nest Egg with chick survival rates reaching over 99 per cent in recent years in the programme.
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