In a post of social media, the Capital Kiwi Project said all monitored chicks made fight weight, with none lost to predation. Photo: Facebook / The Capital Kiwi Project
Wellington's Capital Kiwi Project says all 10 chicks it has been monitoring have put on enough weight to fight off predators.
At just 1.2kg, it said the chicks were big enough to send stoats packing.
Around 200 kiwi lived in the Makara hills, south-west of Wellington city.
In a post of social media, the Capital Kiwi Project said all monitored chicks made fight weight, with none lost to predation.
The project credited the success to predator control.
It said the kiwi comeback was based on a network of 4,600 traps deployed across the area, backed by another network of locals, iwi and landowners.
"In areas with no pest control, chick survivorship is 0 to 5 percent."
The main perpetrator was the stoat - but a 1kg kiwi could use its raking claws to fight off a stoat.
"This is an exceptional result in the mission to restore wild kiwi to the hills surrounding our capital city."
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