An Auckland kiwi bird breeding programme is celebrating the release of a 200th kiwi chick into the wild.
Auckland Zoo, the Department of Conservation and the BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust have been helping North Island Brown Kiwi chicks survive since 1996.
The zoo's New Zealand fauna keeper, Michelle Whybrow, says eggs are taken from the wild, incubated and hatched. The birds are then sent to a pest-free island in the Hauraki Gulf.
Ms Whybrow says this season, the breeding programme has had a 95% success rate.
She says when the birds are bigger, stronger and better able to fend off predators, they'll be brought back to the mainland.
