A kiwi pukupuku chick captured exploring outside its burrow in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary in Nelson. Photo: SUPPLIED
Just over six months after little spotted kiwi were reintroduced to Nelson's Brook Waimārama Sanctuary, breeding has begun and the first chick has hatched, just in time for Christimas.
In May, 41 little spotted kiwi, also known as kiwi pukupuku, were translocated from Kapiti Island to the fenced sanctuary in Nelson.
Brook Waimārama Sanctuary ecologist Robert Schadewinkel said they had been hopeful the birds would breed this season. Little spotted kiwi typically lay eggs between July and January, with an incubation period of 65 to 75 days.
The male birds do the incubation work and Schadewinkel said of the 10 male birds fitted with transmitters, five were visiting the same burrow, which had indicated they were breeding.
Brook Waimārama Sanctuary ecologist Robert Schadewinkel Photo: Supplied
Trail cameras had been set up near those burrows, to catch footage of chicks when they emerged.
"I checked the half a dozen trail cameras and there we were, this chick just popped up in the corner of the camera," Schadewinkel said
"It was an absolutely delightful, joyful moment. I couldn't hope for anything better than that just before Christmas.
"It's an amazing Christmas gift to all of us, to all the Brooklyn Waimārama Sanctuary volunteers, staff, but also the whole of Whakatū Nelson,
Schadewinkel said it was emotional seeing footage of the first fluffy kiwi chick wandering around in the bush and it reinforced all the hard work that had gone in to ensure the sanctuary remained pest free and a suitable habitat for the birds.
"I'm pretty confident this is certainly not the only one but whether we've got five chicks or 11 chicks or 20 chicks in the sanctuary, who knows, but we know they're breeding, we know they're happy, we know they've found a new home and they're loving it."
Sanctuary chief executive Chris McCormack said the arrival of kiwi chicks was a Christmas treat.
It had been the vision of the sanctuary's original founders to re-introduce kiwi to the area, after a decades long absence.
A kiwi pukupuku chick with its father, Tama. Photo: SUPPLIED
McCormack said having the kiwi establish themselves so soon after translocation showed there was plenty of food in the sanctuary for them.
"We hope in the future that we could probably get to a capacity of 300 to 350 in the sanctuary. Still years to come, of course, but it's just magic that we've got eggs already."
Several months after the kiwi had settled in, the sanctuary had begun night tours and over a thousand people had taken a guided tour between July and November.
Visitors often heard kiwi calling to each other, with some lucky enough to have close encounters.
McCormack said on a recent tour he led, they stopped to see the gloworms and had turned their torches off, when one visitor became agitated by something on the ground.
"I turned my red head torch back on, and there we were, a kiwi right at her feet, it jumped in the bushes, and then we watched it jump back onto the boardwalk then disappeared into the night. Then straight after that, it decided to come back for another check of these humans and turned around and disappeared back into the night."
McCormack said the encounter left him speechless. He usually warned visitors that seeing kiwi was like finding a needle in a haystack.
For the first time, night tours at the sanctuary will continue into the summer months to allow visitors to the region to experience the wildlife after dark.
McCormack said kākā and mohua were the next bird species they hoped to translocate into the sanctuary.
Kiwi pukupuku were thought to be functionally extinct in the South Island until a chance discovery on the West Coast earlier this year.
In July, a female kiwi pukupuku was found in the remote Adams Wilderness Area, for the first time in 50 years.
Kiwi pukupuku are extremely vulnerable to introduced predators. Until now, it was believed they only survived in offshore islands and fenced predator-free sites.
Despite years of searching, the last known sighting of a kiwi pukupuku on the mainland was in 1978.
The Department of Conservation is gathering information to work with Kāti Māhaki ki Makaawhio (a distinct hapū of Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Māmoe) to explore the future protection and management of the birds.
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