A kiwi chick spent five days from before New Year's Day busy trying to crack out of its shell.
A kiwi chick was born at the National Kiwi Hatchery at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua on 1 January 2019. Photo: Facebook / National Kiwi Hatchery
The National Kiwi Hatchery at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua last week announced the kiwi came into the world on 1 January at 9am.
It weighed 328.2g when it hatched, however the team said they wouldn't know the sex for a while.
Their website states, kiwi eggs take about 78 days to incubate in artificial conditions, slightly longer when in the wild.
Upon hatching, the chicks are given a full medical checkup by the team and placed into brooder boxes.
When they reach three weeks, they are released into outdoor enclosures that closely mimic the forest conditions.
The chicks stay in the outdoor enclosures until they grow to 1kg and are then returned to the wild by Deparment of Conservation staff.
The brown kiwi population is steadily declining by about 2-3 percent a year, National Kiwi Hatchery's website states.
Without ongoing support, experts estimate brown kiwi will be extinct in the wild within two generations.
