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Activity: Be a predator Dectective & more

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Activity: Be a predator Dectective & more

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📷 Kiwis for kiwi

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Kiwi chick reacting to sound from within egg

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Kiwi chick reacting to sound from within egg

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This Save Kiwi Month, we're working with Nature Watch to see if you can find kiwi where you live. Join us in the search for kiwi!

Nature Watch is a website where you can share what you see in nature, meet other nature watchers, and learn about New Zealand animals, plants, and fungi.

We're working with Nature Watch this Save Kiwi Month to encourage everyone to take part in a search for kiwi in their backyards - asking people to note down the locations where they see kiwi or signs of kiwi.

Now, being nocturnal, kiwi can be quite elusive but they do leave signs as to where they have been. Here are some further identifying features for the photos above.

Footprints

The key with identifying these is to look out for only the three front toes. The kiwi's fourth toe is high up at the back and doesn't leave an imprint except in very deep mud, whereas the fourth toe is easily seen in footprints left by other birds such as pukeko, weka, chickens and pheasants.

Probe holes

Kiwi probe the ground for food with their long beak, leaving conical holes the size and shape of an old-fashioned ice cream cone. It is important to note that if there are cobwebs in a possible probe hole, it could be a tunnel web spider den!

Feathers

Kiwi feathers have a downy appearance, with no barbs holding each segment together. Feathers are often seen in summer caught in hook grass along tracks.

Scats

Kiwi scat is quite difficult to tell apart from other birds and even the experts get fooled. Usually it is the white uric acid crystals in the poo that suggest it is from a kiwi.

Kiwi Calls

To hear what kiwi sound like, and the different birds and animals that they can be confused with, have a listen to the links on our kiwi calls page.

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This Save Kiwi Month, we're working with Nature Watch to see if you can find kiwi where you live. Join us in the search for kiwi! Nature Watch is a website where you can share what you see in nature, meet other nature watchers, and learn about New Zealand animals, plants, and fungi.

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This Kiwi field trip will see you actively involved in the process of saving the North Island brown kiwi!

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Summary Page: Kiwi - from lifted egg to free adult
Term 3 starting 15 August 2017.

Hover to Log In | Enrol

This Kiwi field trip will see you actively involved in the process of saving the North Island brown kiwi! You will travel deep into the Karioi Rahui Forest to lift an egg from a kiwi nest. Then you will carefully transport it all the way to the kiwi incubation facility and hatchery at Rainbow Springs' Kiwi Encounter in Rotorua.

At Rainbow Springs you will get to see how kiwi are raised in captivity and grown to full size within a predator-free enclosure. Finally you will give a kiwi juvenile a final health check at Wairakei golf course and sanctuary before releasing it back into the Tongariro Forest to fend for itself and hopefully produce offspring of its own.

With whiskers like a cat, a sense of smell like a dog and feathers like fur, our kiwi is a unique bird! But with an average of 27 killed each week by predators, our kiwi is under serious threat of extinction. During this field trip you will work alongside DOC staff and the team at New Zealand's largest kiwi hatching facility, to help save the North Island brown kiwi.
Problem!
Despite being wrapped in mattress-like foam and other cushioning, kiwi eggs sometimes crack while being transported out of the forest on quad bikes and 4WD vehicles.

We need a better way to protect the egg during transportation.
Can you design a solution?
Get your class together and come up with your own plan of how to protect the egg during transport in a vehicle.

Further details will be in field trip newsletters and on the field trip web site.

To prepare for this field trip, LEARNZ content will support inquiry into:

Kiwi as a native species of Aotearoa New Zealand

The 5 (or 6?) species of kiwi

Lifecycle of kiwi

Adaptations of kiwi

Kiwi habitat

Threats to kiwi

Kiwi populations

Importance of kiwi to Māori

Kiwi as symbols of New Zealand

Organisations helping kiwi such as Rainbow Springs and Wairakei Sanctuary

How you can help kiwi

During this field trip you will:

Follow Andrew's tweets on twitter

Use radio tracking to find kiwi in Tongariro Forest

Get up close to adult kiwi

Lift a kiwi egg from its nest

Transport a kiwi egg out of the forest

See why some eggs break or crack when being transported out of the forest

Follow an egg's journey by foot, motorbike and car to a captive rearing facility in Rotorua

Get up close to kiwi chicks

Follow up on the young birds at Wairakei Sanctuary and Golf Course, a kiwi 'creche' in Taupō

Give kiwi chicks a health check

Meet scientists, local iwi and other experts who work with kiwi

Investigate the challenges in growing the local Western North Island Brown kiwi population to 200 pairs

Find out how the community is involved in saving kiwi

Go to a release of a kiwi yearling back into the wild

After the field trip, challenge yourself to:

As part of a technology activity, design a system to protect kiwi eggs which are currently breaking while being transported out of the forest

Take some other personal action to support kiwi

Educate others about kiwi

Influence others to support kiwi

Visit a place that has kiwi

Place your personal value on kiwi

Visit a place that has a kiwi cloak or kiwi feathers

Join an organization or subscribe to a magazine that helps kiwi

Do something to help a native species near you

Where you will go

Tongariro Forest in the central North Island is part of Operation Nest Egg and the Kiwi Recovery Plan. The conservation strategy for Tongariro Forest is to promote it as a forest of the future, by allowing the forest to recover to a natural state. The area has native and exotic trees and has been logged in the past. It has one of New Zealand's largest brown kiwi populations and, although the whole forest is a kiwi sanctuary, it is still open for human activities such as mountain biking and pig hunting. Kiwi populations provide a good indicator for stoat, ferret, dog and cat impacts. Kiwi, as an important icon for all New Zealanders, provide a way of promoting issues that affect the entire forest ecosystem.

Teacher comments about related field trips

"LEARNZ field trips provide an inclusive blended elearning programme that has heightened student learning and enthusiasm for learning in my class. The information available to support planning and implementation of classroom programmes is amazing. The curriculum integration opportunities LEARNZ field trips presents has provided my students with a rich literacy programme. Parent feedback from our annual teaching and learning survey provided positive feedback about how effective and apparent the students learning is when participating on a LEARNZ field trip." Katrina Laurie from Clifton Terrace Model School

"This is a fantastic programme. The field trips are well organised and highly informative. The field trip catered to the learning needs and abilities of my diverse year 3 class. Special needs students were able to access the same information as their classmates, using listening tools and videos so that they could take part in class discussions. My higher ability students were able to complete their own online research." Shelley Galloway from Mt Somers Springburn School

"LEARNZ field trips are a good tool to provide a context to a Science programme at the Y7-9 level. Our topic was focused on L4 of curriculum looking at NZ birds with regards to conservation. Used one activity for national standard assessment." Rachel Mortimer from Columba College

Go to more comments about related field trips.

Learning Areas/Levels

Vision, Values, Key Competencies, Principles, Literacy and Numeracy

By their nature, LEARNZ field trips integrate with the higher levels of the NZ Curriculum. Participation encourages development of the Key Competencies around Thinking, Using language, symbols and text, Managing self, Relating to others, and Participating and contributing. Teachers indicate this in testimonials. LEARNZ field trips have support and activities for Literacy, with opportunities to develop skills in Listening, Reading and Viewing and in Speaking, Writing and Presenting. More about LEARNZ as a Reading Resource and student writing opportunities with LEARNZ. Select LEARNZ field trips have support and activities for Numeracy, encouraging the development of skills in Number and Algebra, in Statistics and in Geometry and Measurement.

As well as providing visual and audio material and access to real experiences, LEARNZ links well to ESOL Principles, especially Principle 3 Maintain and make explicit the same learning outcomes for all the learners. How can I make the lesson comprehensible to all students? How can I plan the learning tasks so that all the students are actively involved? Do my students understand the learning outcomes? Principle 4 Begin with context embedded tasks which make the abstract concrete. How can I put these concepts into a concrete context?

What's in a Field Trip

Every LEARNZ field trip has its own newly-built, self-contained web site ready for integration into your teaching and learning programme. Teacher Support has curriculum integration, resources, newsletters, support and evaluation. Prepare Students provides opportunities for student inquiry on two sets of image-rich background pages at reading levels 2 years apart, (students can click to have those pages read to them out loud), online interactive and other activities to check students' understanding, and a glossary. During the field trip there are daily additions such as a diary, video clips, profiles of the experts (ideal careers education), a photo gallery, live tweets on twitter, and ambassador (mascot) page updates. Live web conferences on our enterprise-level Zoom platform scales to enable multiple teachers to manage students putting prepared and spontaneous questions to experts (recorded for replay). After the field trip, teachers are encouraged to take further action with their class in the community or to go on a related field trip, or to invite a guest speaker, or to present what they have learned to a school assembly or wider group. Teachers also fill in an online evaluation (more about reflective practice), the field trip prize winner is drawn, and the final newsletter is sent. Content remains online for continued use.

How teachers use LEARNZ

View some of over 1,000 teacher comments in testimonials. There are two main ways teachers use a LEARNZ virtual field trip with their class. Firstly, a LEARNZ field trip is ideally an immersive, engaging, synchronous, online learning experience with real-time components and a myriad of opportunities for teachers and students. Secondly, and less ideal but still effective, a LEARNZ field trip can be used as a retrospective experience where the resources such as photos, text, activities, videos and audioconferences/web conferences comprise a unique collection of authentic, contemporary New Zealand teaching and learning material.

Not Registered with LEARNZ? Are you a New Zealand Registered or Provisionally-Registered Teacher on the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand website? Register free with LEARNZ Now.

Already Registered with LEARNZ and activated your account? Log in to your personal MyLEARNZ Control Panel and then enrol your classes at no cost in field trips. Note: Enrolment is only needed for the current and future year's field trips.

Registered but need help? Check your email for activation instructions - contact us if the message did not make it to your email inbox. Log on to MyLEARNZ. Go to Getting Started.

Teachers - Lost your password? Recover it here.

Field trips:

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Introductory video for this field trip: Watch, embed or share on Vimeo or click below to watch here.
PLD about this field trip? Go to Webinar Schedule and Recordings.

New to LEARNZ? Go to Getting Started.

Meet Andrew, your LEARNZ Field Trip Teacher
Inquiry Topics: adaptations of birds, Bay of Plenty, biodiversity, birds, competition, conservation, environment, flightless birds, habitat, kiwi, kiwi recovery, life cycle, native birds, pest control, predators, protected environments, recovery programme, threatened species

View the LEARNZ Events Calendar

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Summary of Kiwi - from lifted egg to free adult | NZ teachers, enrol in this LEARNZ virtual field trip

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Hover to Log In | Enrol This Kiwi field trip will see you actively involved in the process of saving the North Island brown kiwi! You will travel deep into the Karioi Rahui Forest to lift an egg from a kiwi nest.

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Ruud Kleinpaste talks about what makes Tongariro Forest an ideal habitat for kiwi. I wonder if you have similar habitat or otherwise near you that may be suitable for kiwi.

Day 1 - Video 2 of 4.

From the LEARNZ Kiwi virtual field trip - more info at http://rata.learnz.org.nz/summary.php?vft=kiwi173

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Scroll down for wonderful Kuwi the kiwi fact cards...make them into a game!

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Get involved with saving kiwi this October!

The wonderful people at Kiwis for Kiwi do such a great job looking out for kiwi - our native treasures.

The Great Kiwi Morning Tea is a fun way to be a part of caring for kiwi. Every year it helps in raising money to support kiwi conservation projects across the country.

The official Great Kiwi Morning Tea will be held on Thursday 31st October. If you wish to know more about this event, or would like to put on your own event, you can register your school, business, friends or family by clicking the link below.

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The Great Kiwi Morning Tea - Kuwi the Kiwi

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Get involved with saving kiwi this October! The wonderful people at Kiwis for Kiwi do such a great job looking out for kiwi - our native treasures. The Great Kiwi Morning Tea is a fun way to be a part of caring for kiwi.

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Kiwi are fierce...watch one fight off a possum

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Kiwi are fierce...watch one fight off a possum

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Today the birds are under siege. By 1998, the population had plummeted to fewer than 100,000 birds. By 2008 that figure had fallen even further - to about 70,000.

Today, in places where kiwi are being managed, things are improving and many populations are stable or increasing. These places include Department of Conservation (DOC) kiwi sanctuaries, community-led projects (many of them sponsored by Kiwis for kiwi) and offshore island sanctuaries.

There is no room to relax, however. Many kiwi live outside managed areas and these populations are expected to decline. Even within the managed areas, uncontrolled dogs can kill many birds very quickly.

Hard statistics

A tiny proportion of kiwi eggs produce a kiwi adult.

About 50% of all kiwi eggs fail to even hatch - sometimes because of natural bacteria, sometimes because the adult bird is disturbed by predators.

Of eggs that do hatch, about 90% of chicks are dead within 6 months.

70% of these are killed by stoats or cats, and about 20% die of natural causes or at the jaws and claws of other predators.

Only 10% of kiwi chicks make it to six months.

Fewer than 5% reach adulthood.

Official status

According to DOC, all kiwi species are in trouble to some degree. The Department's threat classification for each of the 11 kiwi taxa is shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Threat classification of the 11 kiwi taxa.
Little spotted kiwi are on the road recovery.

Rowi have increased their population, mainly due to Operation Nest Egg™.

The decline of both Haast tokoeka and Coromandel brown kiwi has been halted thanks to extensive predator control. For Haast tokoeka, Operation Nest Egg is helping to halt the decline.

The other three taxa of brown kiwi are still in decline. Although some actively managed populations are flourishing, most birds live in sites with little or no management, and for some of these, dogs are a serious problem, especially working dogs.

The other three taxa of tokoeka have no direct management and are assumed to be gradually declining, especially in lowland and drier areas.

Great spotted kiwi receive little active management, and although some populations in upland wet areas appear to be stable, those in lowland and drier areas are assumed to be declining gradually.

The source of the threat

Kiwi face threats from three main directions - predators, lost habitat and people.

It can become a downward spiral. As kiwi populations decline and become fragmented, sex ratios skew and the effective breeding population further declines. And so it goes...

There are things each of us can do to help kiwi survive and thrive. Find out what here.

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Today the birds are under siege. By 1998, the population had plummeted to fewer than 100,000 birds. By 2008 that figure had fallen even further - to about 70,000. Today, in places where kiwi are being managed, things are improving and many populations are stable or increasing.

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Watch what kiwi chicks at the hatchery get up to at night!

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Watch what kiwi chicks at the hatchery get up to at night!

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How the Kiwi Lost His Wings Display Poster

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This great display poster is perfect for your classroom display on New Zealand wildlife.Tags in this resource: kiwi-normal-eyes-1.png

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Gift of Alexander Turnbull 1913 This kahu kiwi was collected by Alexander H. Turnbull (1868-1918) and presented to the Dominion Museum by him in 1913 along with about 630 Māori and 535 'South Sea' items. Turnbull, described as a 'merchant, bibliophile and collector' was also the founder of the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.

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Tāne asks Kiwi to help save the forest - but it comes at a great price.

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Tāne asks Kiwi to help save the forest - but it comes at a great price.

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He Paki Taonga i a Māui: Te Ngarohanga o ngā Parirau o te Kiwi | How the Kiwi Lost Its Wings

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Māori

Māori always regarded the kiwi as a special bird. They knew it as 'te manu huna a Tāne', the hidden bird of Tāne, god of the forest. Kiwi feather cloaks (kahu kiwi), originally made by sewing kiwi skins together, were taonga (treasures) usually reserved for chiefs. Kiwi feathers, now woven into flax cloaks, are still valued. Māori also ate kiwi, preserving them in the birds' fat, and steaming them in a hāngī (earth oven).

A taste of kiwi

Among the few Europeans who ate kiwi was the 19th-century explorer Charlie Douglas. He thought the eggs made great fritters when fried in oil from the kākāpō bird, but was less sure about the meat. After spraining an ankle he came across two kiwi, and being famished, he ate them. He said the best description of the taste was 'a piece of pork boiled in an old coffin'.

Early Europeans

From the first, Europeans regarded kiwi as unusual birds. The first skin was taken to England in 1812 and inspired the first illustration of the bird, looking more like a penguin. As early as 1835, the missionary William Yate described the kiwi as 'the most remarkable and curious bird in New Zealand.' In 1851, the first living bird was sent to England as a specimen for the London zoo.

Use as an emblem

As the kiwi began to disappear from the bush, its image began to appear as an emblem. In the second half of the 19th century, it was used as a trademark - for veterinary medicines, seeds, drugs, varnishes, insurance, on the Auckland University College crest, and on Bank of New Zealand notes.

When the first New Zealand pictorial stamps were issued in 1898, the kiwi was on the sixpenny stamp. About 1899, one observer said, 'From the fact that bank notes, postage stamps and advertisement chromos generally have a portrait of this unholy looking bird on them, it is evident that the kiwi is the accepted national bird of New Zealand.'

National symbol

In the 20th century the kiwi began to represent the nation. In August 1904 the New Zealand Free Lance printed a cartoon which showed a pluck kiwi growing into a moa after New Zealand's rugby 9-3 victory over Great Britain. This was possibly the first use of the kiwi as a cartoon symbol for the nation. The next year the Westminster Gazette printed a cartoon of a kiwi and a kangaroo going off to a colonial conference. In 1905 Trevor Lloyd also drew his first sporting cartoon using a kiwi when he showed the bird unable to swallow Wales following the defeat of the All Black rugby team. Lloyd more often symbolised the All Backs with a moa during that tour, but by 1908 the kiwi had clearly become the dominant bird symbol in cartoons, especially sporting ones.

Besides the moa, other symbols for New Zealand at this time included fern leaves, a small boy and a young lion cub.

'Kiwis'

Until the First World War, the kiwi represented the country and not the people - they were En Zed(der)s, Maorilanders or Fernleaves. During the First World War, New Zealand soldiers were often described as Diggers or Pig Islanders. But by 1917 they were also being called Kiwis. It was probably not because they were thought to be, like the birds, short, stocky scrappers - this was a more common image of Australians, while New Zealanders liked to emphasise their stature and good manners. It was simply that the kiwi was distinct and unique to the country.

The kiwi had appeared on military badges since the South Canterbury Battalion used it in 1886, and it was taken up by several regiments in the First World War. Cartoonists also used the bird often during the war to symbolise New Zealand. At the end of the war New Zealand soldiers carved a giant kiwi on the chalk hills above Sling Camp on Salisbury Plain in England.

An Australian boot polish called Kiwi was widely used in the imperial forces. It was named by its founder, William Ramsay, in honour of his wife's birthplace.

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Māori Māori always regarded the kiwi as a special bird. They knew it as 'te manu huna a Tāne', the hidden bird of Tāne, god of the forest. Kiwi feather cloaks (kahu kiwi), originally made by sewing kiwi skins together, were taonga (treasures) usually reserved for ...

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A quick intro about kiwi from primary student Emile

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A quick intro about kiwi from primary student Emile

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Kiwi, Kea, Weka and other birds of New Zealand - Serious Biology for Kids #7

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New Zealand's Most Famous Bird | Wild New Zealand

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Video: Listen to male and female kiwi calls

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Video: Listen to male and female kiwi calls

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Kiwi birds. Male and female calls at Russell New Zealand

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The cultural significance of kiwi and history of kiwi in NZ

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The cultural significance of kiwi and history of kiwi in NZ

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Make a korowai out of paper or found nature materials like feathers and leaves

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Matariki Korowai (cloak) | Art activities for kids, Childrens activities, Teaching art

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Feb 1, 2016 - This Pin was discovered by Susie Berry. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest

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Under construction

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The Most Extreme Births In The Animal Kingdom

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Whip up this cute kiwi finger puppet with your kids for a New Zealand theme or perhaps for Waitangi Day - its quick and easy, especially using our template. No sewing required!
You will need:
Brown felt
Black felt
Orange felt
Wiggle eyes
Fabric glue (you can sew if you wish)

Small kiwi template
Instructions:
Print our small kiwi template and use it to cut out two bodies and two wings from brown felt.

Glue around the edge of one of the bodies leaving a gap and the bottom so you can put in your fingers. Stick the second body on top.

Glue the two wings to the front of the body.

Cut out two legs from black felt and glue these to the front of the body.

Cut out an orange beak and stick this to the front of your kiwi. Stick on two wiggle eyes and your kiwi is ready for play!

Explore Activity Village

Kids can sew this cute felt kiwi out of simple sewing basket supplies. It's a fun craft idea for studies of New Zealand or perhaps for Waitangi Day.

Make this kiwi photo frame using craft foam and simple supplies - fun for a New Zealand theme, perhaps?

You will need:

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Whip up this cute kiwi finger puppet with your kids for a New Zealand theme or perhaps for Waitangi Day - its quick and easy, especially using our template. No sewing required!

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Watch a kiwi chick hatch at Auckland Zoo

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Zoo Tales - It's hatch time for our kiwi chicks!

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A brief video of why kiwi need our help and how we can save them

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Saving the Kiwi - Kohanga Strategy Explained

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Why do kiwi need our help? Threats to kiwi/Operation Nest Egg/How to save a kiwi

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Why do kiwi need our help? Threats to kiwi/Operation Nest Egg/How to save a kiwi

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We're working with community-led kiwi conservation groups, iwi, DOC, landowners, businesses and Kiwis across the country to increase kiwi populations by 2% per year. Here you can read about what we're doing, how we got here, and how it's all progressing.

The Programme

Stage One - Stocking kōhanga

Stage Two - Returning kiwi to the wild

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We're working with community-led kiwi conservation groups, iwi, DOC, landowners, businesses and Kiwis across the country to increase kiwi populations by 2% per year. Here you can read about what we're doing, how we got here, and how it's all progressing. The Programme

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Watch the opening day of the Crombie Lockwood Kiwi Hatchery & learn about why a new hatchery is needed

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Watch the opening day of the Crombie Lockwood Kiwi Hatchery & learn about why a new hatchery is needed

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Opening Day - The Crombie Lockwood Kiwi Burrow

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Watch Kiwi rangers locate a kiwi and perform a health check at Wairakei

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Watch Kiwi rangers locate a kiwi and perform a health check at Wairakei

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A brand new kiwi hatching facility at Wairakei!

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A brand new kiwi hatching facility at Wairakei!

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Kiwi eggs are quite fragile and lots of them fail, i.e. no chick hatches from them. And for those that do hatch in the wild, only one in twenty (20) will survive. Most are killed by predators such as stoats. So we go in and 'rescue' the eggs while they are being incubated. We complete that process in the pristine environment of the Crombie Lockwood Kiwi Burrow and release the chick to a predator-free environment.

By 'rescuing' each egg we increase the chance of survival from 5% to 65%. And then by placing the chick in a predator-free, nutrient-rich environment we further increase their chances of living a full and healthy life.

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Kiwi eggs are quite fragile and lots of them fail, i.e. no chick hatches from them. And for those that do hatch in the wild, only one in twenty (20) will survive. Most are killed by predators such as stoats. So we go in and 'rescue' the eggs while they are being incubated.

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Golf is played by day and at night kiwi come out to play

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Imagine the experience of playing golf on a world class championship course, immersed in the natural beauty of a wildlife sanctuary. The ambitious project is the brainchild of owner Gary Lane and has seen a dedicated five kilometre ‘Xcluder’ fence installed around the entire course perimeter. The fe…

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Kiwi - flightless birds with enormous eggs: biology/habitat/calls/unusual facts

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Kiwi - flightless birds with enormous eggs: biology/habitat/calls/unusual facts

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Location of Wairakei Golf + Sanctuary Kiwi Creche 

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Location of Wairakei Golf + Sanctuary Kiwi Creche 

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All about Kiwi Contact: Overview/Programme partners/Free online kiwi educational resource/Where kiwi live in Taupo

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All about Kiwi Contact: Overview/Programme partners/Free online kiwi educational resource/Where kiwi live in Taupo

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This padlet has been created to help you to learn about all things kiwi. It is a work in progress but we hope you find it useful! If you have any questions or interesting info about kiwi you want to add please email kiwicontacttaupo@gmail.com

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Here is an overview of what the Kiwi Contact programme is all about

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Kiwis for kiwi, protecting kiwi & conserving their habitats - Home

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Kiwis for kiwi a national charity supporting community-led and Maori-led kiwi conservation projects. Our vision to take kiwi from endangered to everywhere.

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Thanks to Contact Energy for supporting the programme!

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Our philosophy is to 'be the neighbour you'd want to have'. To us, this means respecting the rights of others, ensuring the safe and best practice operation of our sites, and making a positive contribution to the communities we call home.

It's an approach that works, and in 2016 we were the proud recipient of a BACS Good Business Egg Award for Community Empowerment. To celebrate our win, we donated $20,000 to the Women's Refuge to support the work they're doing with families across New Zealand.

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Our philosophy is to 'be the neighbour you'd want to have'. To us, this means respecting the rights of others, ensuring the safe and best practice operation of our sites, and making a positive contribution to the communities we call home.

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Free amazing resource with activities & lesson plans, all about kiwi!

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Free amazing resource with activities & lesson plans, all about kiwi!

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"Because of their size, kiwi could be expected to lay an egg about the size of a hen’s egg. In fact, the kiwi egg is six times as big as normal for a bird its size." Read more here:

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It takes 30 days to form a kiwi egg inside the female.

Its smooth, thin, white or greenish-white shell is about 120 millimetres long and 80 millimetres in diameter.

Because of their size, kiwi could be expected to lay an egg about the size of a hen's egg. In fact, the kiwi egg is six times as big as normal for a bird its size. They are almost exactly the same size as eggs produced by the now-extinct bush moa, a much bigger bird. This has led to speculation about whether the kiwi was once a very much larger bird.

Kiwi eggs also contain the largest proportion of yolk of any bird - 65%, compared to 35-40% for most birds. Kiwi chicks hatch with a large external yolk sac, which is gradually absorbed through their navel, over their first 10 days of life. This is why kiwi parents do not have to feed their newly hatched chick.

Huge effort to produce a huge egg

To produce such a large egg, the female kiwi must eat three times as much as usual.

The egg grows to take up 15-20% of her body mass and her pregnant belly bulges so much it touches the ground. The female has to walk with her legs wide apart to accommodate it. Sometimes a female will soak her belly in cold water to soothe the inflamed stretched skin and temporarily relieve the weight.

Just before the egg is laid, it takes up so much room inside the female there is little left for food and she will fast for two or three days before laying.

Most clutches are one egg

In most kiwi varieties, the typical clutch size is one egg. The exception is brown kiwi, which usually lay two eggs in a clutch.

Although enormous, the egg is laid quickly and, for brown kiwi and little spotted kiwi females, her work is then done. She leaves the burrow and the male takes over incubating the egg. In the other kiwi varieties, the male and female kiwi share incubation.

In two-egg clutches, the second egg will already have begun to develop inside the female and will be laid about 25 days after the first. It is rare, but not unknown, for a third egg to be produced, especially if one of the first eggs is lost or collected as part of Operation Nest Egg. The most prolific egg producer is the brown kiwi, which will often lay two-to-three clutches each year.

A female kiwi can lay up to 100 eggs in her lifetime.

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It takes 30 days to form a kiwi egg inside the female. Its smooth, thin, white or greenish-white shell is about 120 millimetres long and 80 millimetres in diameter. Because of their size, kiwi could be expected to lay an egg about the size of a hen's egg.

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The kiwi's egg is huge. In proportion to its body size, the female kiwi lays a bigger egg than almost any other bird. In fact, kiwi eggs are six-times as big as normal for a bird of its size.

While an ostrich may lay the world's largest bird's egg, it is actually the smallest in proportion to the mother - just 2% of her body weight. By comparison, the kiwi egg takes up about 20% of the mother's body.

In humans, a baby at full term is 5% of its mother's body weight.

A female kiwi can lay up to 100 eggs in her lifetime.

The advantages

While laying such a large egg is painful, there is an advantage. Most bird eggs are 35-40% yolk but the kiwi's egg is a 65% yolk. The nutritious yolk produces kiwi chicks that hatch fully feathered and independent, and is so enormous that it continues to sustain them for the first week of life. By that time, chicks can provide for themselves and kiwi parents seldom have to feed their offspring.

Why such a big egg?

It is still not clear why the kiwi produces such a large egg. Some researchers believe the kiwi has always been a small bird, and that its egg has grown. Others suggest the kiwi was once much larger and, while the bird shrank over time, its egg did not.

It seems the latter explanation is more likely, because gradual evolutionary changes to an adult bird's characteristics are more likely to be survived than changes to an egg or foetus.

If the latter theory is true, the kiwi's ancient ancestor would have probably been about the size of a cassowary, up to 1.5 metres tall.

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The kiwi's egg is huge. In proportion to its body size, the female kiwi lays a bigger egg than almost any other bird. In fact, kiwi eggs are six-times as big as normal for a bird of its size.