Kiwis at the National Zoo
There are five species of kiwi, all of which are flightless and unique to New Zealand. The National Zoo is home to several North Island brown kiwis, the only kiwi that can be seen outside of New Zealand.
Keeper Kathy Brader provides updates about the Zoo's kiwis, including one that hatched on March 7.
Kiwi Update
June 29, 2009
It’s been a wee bit since I last updated what our kiwis are up to. Koa is now hitting 800 grams, still small for his age but he is healthy and that’s what is important.
We had a visiting kiwi keeper here several weeks ago from the Kiwi Encounter (located in Rotorua, New Zealand). I have visited this fabulous place both times I have been in New Zealand. This facility raises more kiwi chicks than any other place in New Zealand. All chicks raised there are for Operation Nest Egg, and more than 500 Kiwi Encounter chicks have been released since 1994.
Lindsay Grey, the Kiwi Encounter keeper, spent a day here at the Zoo. We also visited the Zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, looking over all our kiwi enclosures and of course our birds. Lindsay told me that every once in a while her facility gets chicks like Koa, that grow more slowly but typically will “hit their stride” and catch up. Kiwis are the slowest growing birds on the planet, which is why you will see males with not reaching adult size until they are one and a half to three years old. Females may take up to four years.
As long as Koa remains healthy he should eventually catch up.
The other good news is that we seem to have finally plugged all the mouse openings in his enclosure, so no more visits from the mice! Mice cannot hurt kiwis, even when the birds are small, but they have been eating some of Koa's food (don't worry, we made sure he got enough).
This took a lot of work from both our Integrated Pest Management team and the guys from our facilities management team. Mice can squeeze through any opening larger then a #2 pencil. I can’t thank the staff enough for all the work that went into this project.
Manaia continues to be his sweet self. He has had several visits from the New Zealand ambassador and his staff, plus more visits from people throughout the states (and some from overseas) who have come to visit him. I just love it when visitors come up during the Meet a Kiwi demo and tell me how they have followed both his and Koa’s progress over the past few years, especially when the kids are the ones who have become the kiwi fans in the family—before the rest of the family knows what happened, everyone has become a kiwi fan. So, please keep coming by and saying hello.
Manaia catching a food ball in mid-air. Taken by FONZ volunteer Karen Wilhelm.
Nessus and Maori are both comfortably settled back into their outside enclosure. We spent the winter mouse-proofing their exhibit (and if you thought doing Koa’s exhibit inside was a job, the outside one was an even bigger job). No sign of another egg but the birds seem to have settled down nicely.
Manaia is finally back in his outside enclosure. I had to come in one night very late to assist with some work that was being done at the Bird House. It was about 11:30 p.m. and the most wonderful sound greeted me when I approached Manaia’s enclosure. He vocalized for about 30 seconds. Kiwis don’t start calling until they hit about two years of age. This is the first time I have heard him call. It was worth coming in just hear Manaia call.
Kiwi Fan
April 9, 2009
All is quiet on the kiwi front. Koa is still the slow grower that he is, but he's growing and that's the important thing.
No new egg yet with Nessus. I am still hopeful we will get another egg, but it is on kiwi time not mine. Since we had to move the pair out of the enclosure last fall to do some pest control work on their yard (they were moved to their old breeding yard), I have been working on adding new plants to their yard.
We hope to move the birds back to their new yard in the next month and I wanted to fill it up with as many plants as I could find. The new yard has a heated shed attached to it, so if or when we get some really nasty winter weather we won't have to move the birds back inside. The North Island brown kiwi can handle cold weather, but not if we get those big snow storms that drop a foot of snow (or an ice storm) all at once.
Fortunately we rarely get those kinds of storms but with this new shed we can just lock them in the shed for a little while. Once I move the pair to the new yard, Manaia can go back outside and none too soon. Manaia (like a lot of us) has put on some "winter fat" being inside. Once he can get back outside, he will work those calories back off.
I am going a little off topic a bit here but I wanted to share a neat story with you. I know that our kiwis have fans out there all over the world and occasionally some of you make it our way. I am always so pleased (actually ecstatic) to meet you. Last week Manaia and I got to meet one of our younger fans. Asher and his father, Steve, showed up for a Meet a Kiwi demo.
They live in Philadelphia and came last year but didn't get to meet a kiwi then, so they returned and I got meet them. It was such an unexpected joy for me to meet such an intelligent young person. Asher started watching the kiwi cam with Manaia and stayed tuned in to watch Koa grow up. His dad tells me that he has done a lot of research on kiwis and is a big fan.
When I get to meet people like Asher, I know that the world is a marvelous place and that the future for kiwis (and other species) is ensured. I hope that when any of you come by to visit, you will introduce yourself to me; that rocks my world. Meeting other kiwi fans really keeps me going, so please stop by and say hello.
Kiwi News
March 26, 2009
Nessus, our female kiwi, has laid had two eggs since January. The first one was laid in a very small box, made for a single kiwi. If you had asked me, I would have sworn that the female could not have fit in the wooden tunnel going into the box. Female kiwis get so large toward the end of producing an egg that sometimes (even in the wild) they cannot fit in the tunnel of the male's burrow? they will lay their egg outside of the opening and the male will push it inside.
Anyway, good news/bad news. The egg was fertile, but the embryo died at about 14 to 16 days old There was a hairline crack and a small hole in the shell; bacteria were introduced into the egg. The second egg was laid mid-February and was on the smaller size for a kiwi egg; this egg was infertile.
I have since weighed Nessus and our adult male kiwi, Maori, . The female is gaining weight again and has a very "pudgy" feel to her belly, so I believe she is cycling. I cannot tell when she is going to lay another egg until she is within a few days of actually laying. I only touch her about once a week to check her belly, so I do not disturb the birds much.
Other good news is that Koa, who turned one year on March 7, is slowly climbing toward 800 grams! He still goes and up and down in weight, but he is no longer going down by more than a few grams here and there. I am very pleased to say that Koa is growing but will probably be one those kiwis that take several years to mature and hit his adult weight.
Manaia is still as sweet as anyone can ask for. He celebrated his third birthday on February 13. What an amazing bird we have in him.
Kiwi Update
January 23, 2009
Some of you have followed my New Zealand trip adventure on my blog. I was accompanied by Warren Lynch, a bird manager from the Zoo's Conservation and Research Center. It was a very successful trip all around although Warren swears I dragged him to see every last captive kiwi in New Zealand. It's not true, it just felt that way.
October is not the month I would choose to go again, as the weather is unpredictable and we missed some of the places we had planned on getting to due to the weather and high seas. But, New Zealand as always turned on its charm and we had a great time. I am already planning my next trip where I plan on going back to Stewart Island and being dropped off in the middle of the island so I can hike back to the village, this will mean several nights surrounded by about 10,000 Tokoeka kiwi. Heaven!
Koa gave us a scare right before the Holidays, he somehow injured the tip of his beak, which caused him not to want to eat. Poor little guy, as he is fussy enough with out a sore beak. He spent a few days at the veterinary hospital, where he was put on both pain medication and an antibiotic. He started eating right away and is now all healed and weighs over 690 grams. I have finally come to the realization, after chatting with several kiwi experts in New Zealand, that he is just going to be on the small size.
I know of many small size males that are successful breeders, so I am no longer worried about his slow on and off again weight gains. He is just very independent and going to do it his way, not by any book.
Manaia had to come downstairs for the winter because we had to move Nessus and Maori back to their original pen while we do some predator proofing around their breeding pen in the back. This is taking longer then we had hoped due to weather and some other problems. Now that we are in the middle of winter and kiwi breeding season, we can't move Manaia back outside till spring.
Manaia takes it all in stride and remains the sweetest kiwi around and still remains in high favor with the New Zealand Embassy folks. Several embassy groups visited before the holidays and he seemed to enjoy all the attention.
An American researcher put our kiwi on treadmills to study their locomotion and development. She is finishing up her Master's degree.
Nessus, Koa and Manaia's mother, is gaining weight so I expect her to lay another egg soon.
Kiwi Egg Update
January 5, 2009
On Friday night our adult male kiwi, Maori, abandoned the egg that was laid in early December. I found him sleeping with the female Saturday morning, so I knew the egg was either infertile or dead. The egg was already beginning to break down. One of our pathologists and I opened it up and found the 15mm embryo. That would make the embryo between 15 and 18 days old when it died.
