When five kiwi were presented to a crowd of 300 people inside the banquet hall of New Zealand’s parliament, there was an awe-struck intake of breath. Handlers cradled the whiskery birds; onlookers grew teary; one boy scooped up a stray feather as his mother urged him to keep it safe. This was the first time kiwi had ever set foot in parliament, which is quite the milestone for a bird that's been the country's unofficial mascot for centuries.
The event on Tuesday night - featuring politicians, children, iwi, and environmental groups - marked the culmination of a six-year project to redevelop a kiwi population in Wellington’s wilds after a 100-plus-year absence. “This is our manu [birds] coming home to the place they have inhabited for millions of years but which they had a brief exile from,” said Paul Ward, founder of the Capital Kiwi Project.
New Zealand may be saturated with images of its treasured national bird, but seeing one in the flesh remains rare - and for good reason. Roughly 12 million kiwi once roamed the country; introduced predators and habitat loss have driven that number to 70,000 at the last estimate. “Kiwi have been a part of who we are… If we are honest with ourselves, we haven’t honoured the koha [gift] of that relationship,” Ward added.
Conservation efforts are starting to slowly boost kiwi numbers. In Wellington, the Capital Kiwi Project is leading the charge. The first cohort of 11 kiwi were released into hilly farmland in Mākara in November 2022. Another 232 have followed since, producing dozens of chicks. The project was required to achieve a 30% chick survival rate per its Department of Conservation permit; it has greatly outstripped that goal with an unprecedented 90% chick survival rate. The seven kiwi brought to parliament - five shown to the crowd - are the last cohort, bringing the total birds released into Wellington’s wilds to 250.
Wellington now has the largest population of people living alongside wild kiwi in the world. Mākara residents hear kiwi in their gardens at night; mountain bikers encounter them on tracks; kiwi have been spotted in suburbs far from where they were released. “It’s demonstrating that even for a concentrated urban environment like Wellington city, we can restore biodiversity,” said mayor Andrew Little.
The project’s success is due to enthusiastic community buy-in. More than 100 landowners gave permission for 4,600 stoat traps across the bird’s new 24,000-hectare habitat - making it the largest intensive stoat trapping network of its kind in the country. Schools, iwi, volunteers, and mountain-bikers have contributed through trapping, advocacy, and fundraising. “It’s a network of traps, but it is a network of relationships… what that has enabled is the restoration of a taonga [treasured] species to that landscape,” Ward said.
Following the event, the kiwi were transported to Terawhiti station - one of the country’s oldest and largest sheep stations on the Mākara coast - to be released. Under a soft mist and the whirr of wind turbines, the kiwi poked their needle-like beaks out of boxes, and with gentle encouragement skipped into the inky night. As a hush fell over the small crowd, Ward reflected: “That work to return kiwi is a shared purpose that is extremely powerful. What’s incredibly satisfying about tonight is that it’s working, it’s showing what’s possible when people work together.”