The Kiwi is New Zealand’s most ancient living bird. It is also a biological oddity. Kiwis are flightless and mostly nocturnal, they more like a mammal than a bird.
Kiwis have hair-like feathers, whiskers like a cat, heavy marrow-filled bones and strong muscular legs, a soft claw at the end of its wings. Kiwis have a lower body temperature than most other birds, fleshy footpads, and a beak like a nose. Female kiwi have two functional ovaries. Kiwis are the only birds with nostrils at the end of their long beak. Kiwis build burrows just like a badger, and lay big eggs. After incubation of several months, fully-feathered and almost independent chicks are hatched.
According to many Maori traditions, the kiwi is the eldest child of Tane Mahuta, god of the forest, and offers protection to Maori.
You can spot a Kiwi by listening to its distinctive repeated whistles or guttural calls at night. Kiwi also leave a calling cards. Check for beak probe holes in the ground, large grey and white smelly droppings, feathers snared in hookgrass, burrows, and footprints (provided that the terrain is soft).
Kiwi numbers are decreasing rapidly on New Zealand’s mainland. In 2005 kiwi numbers were about 60,000 birds. They were counted in millions (!) in the past. About half of all kiwi eggs fail to hatch, and of those that do hatch, only ten percent of chicks survive to the age of six months, and less than five percent reach adulthood. Kiwis suffer from the New Zealand’s introduced predators such as stoats, ferrets, dogs and cats.
Department Of Conservation does everything in its power to save the Kiwis. Their predator management and control programs have proven successful in reversing the declines.
Here is what tourists can do to help saving kiwis:

• Avoid taking dogs into kiwi areas.
• Report roaming dogs in kiwi areas.
• Learn to recognize kiwi calls and report what you hear.
• Drive carefully at night and watch for kiwi.
• Visit the Bank of New Zealand Save the Kiwi website and make an on-line credit card donation (www.savethekiwi.org.nz).