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 Hatches at National Zoo
A kiwi hatched on February 13, 2006, at the National Zoo. Few kiwis hatch outside of their native New Zealand, the first having occurred here in 1975. That bird is still on exhibit at the Bird House.
The baby kiwi is named Manaia (pronounced "Mah nye uh"), a Maori (native peoples of New Zealand) word meaning "Guardian of the earth and sky."
Updates
November 30, 2006
I know it's been a while since I have done an update, but it's been rather slow on the news front. I have taken some pictures of Manaia against a ruler to give you an idea of his size. (Thanks to the kind person who wrote me and asked for one). He is a bit squirmy to hold, but at least this will give a rough idea. Finally he is consistently holding his weight at more than 900 grams (29 ounces), today he weighed in at 986 grams (31.7 ounces)!!
The Meet A Kiwi program with him is going extremely well. The first two weeks or so seemed to take him back a bit but the last month I think he began to enjoy it. Of coursec he does get earthworms as a treat and he loves those. We had a new box made for him, but he still seems to prefer his old box. I will try to get him some leaves for him to play around with in the next few days. It will be interesting to see what he will do with them.
Manaia and I will be in a book by Neville Peate, a New Zealander who writes books on New Zealand fauna and flora. This will be his third kiwi book. He found us on the web and wrote to me to find out more. He will be coming to our area and will give a talk and book signing at the Zoo on March 28, 2007. I am thrilled and hope many of you can come.
Baxter, the kiwi that has done the program for more than 16 years, is now at the Conservation & Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, and living the high life! The first couple of days he didn't eat, which was expected. But now has he dug in so to speak. He has lots of grasses and places to roam about in. He has made burrows in two of the large giant reed grasses in his exhibit. I will try to get some pictures the next time I get out there. I miss him but he has a great place to live!
Nessus and Maori have not been doing much of anything. But as breeding goes, it's on their time not mine, so we will just wait—not that I am impatient or anything.
Meet a Kiwi Keeper talkGrowing Up
September 15, 2006
Manaia is slowing gaining weight creeping toward the 900-gram (32-ounce) mark. He will probably hit it in the next week. Slow but steady. I am relieved that he's been gaining weight when I haven't been the keeper taking care of him. I think our "bonding days" are over and he is growing up! He has participated in some more Meet a Kiwi keeper talks in the Bird Resource Center, presented to a limited number of people, and the talks have gone extremely well.
Manaia has twice made his own "burrow" in the enclosure. I found him all snuggled down in the mulch, between some grass clumps and a piece of driftwood, sleeping away.
Weight Gain Slows
August 15, 2006
Today Manaia weighed in at 824 grams (30 ounces). His weight gain is slow. Sometimes he loses a little weight when I am away, which makes me wonder if he has formed an attachment to me—captive kiwi have been documented refusing food that was not prepared by their regular keeper. This makes me feel a little guilty.
But he is normal and healthy and has had a couple of rounds with visitors in his training for being the Meet a Kiwi bird. It all appears to be working out well. He gets treats of live earthworms when he is doing the program. I hope to have him doing the Meet a Kiwi program by mid- to late September.
Update
July 6, 2006
Manaia has moved to a new enclosure.
He is still in our holding area, just a new place.
We had to make room for two kori bustard chicks that hatched this week.
He is now weighing in at 734 grams (26 ounces). He is getting more independent, though he is still willing to take food from me and get on the scale.
He now has had about two weeks in the Meet A Kiwi viewing box and as a reward when he is in there,
I put in a couple of earthworms for him to find.
He really gets excited looking for them, you can really hear him snuffling in the mulch.
He is handling it like a trooper and takes all the noise from the building visitors in his stride. It will be interesting to see how he reacts when we start bringing small groups of visitors in. If all goes well Manaia should be doing the Meet A Kiwi program by mid September! I am very excited to show off our newest kiwi.
Visitors
June 20, 2006
Small groups of randomly selected visitors will be allowed to meet and greet Manaia in the Bird Resource Center inside the Bird House.
Manaia is in "training" to become the star of the Meet a Kiwi Keeper talks
and will be polishing his social skills.
Baxter is the kiwi currently used in demonstrations, but he is getting a little overweight and will be sent to the Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, to go on a diet. We hope to have Manaia doing Baxter's job full-time by September.
DNA
June 12, 2006
Did you know that birds' sex chromosomes are the opposite of those of mammals? In mammals, males have an X and a Y chromosome while females have two Xs. In birds, females are the ones with two different sex chromosomes: Female birds have a Z and a W chromosome, while males have two Zs.
In the picture, you can see that the mother kiwi's DNA (on the left) has two distinct bright bands: one that matches the father kiwi
and one that sits just below it.
As expected, those bands are genes from the Z and the W chromosome, which migrate at different rates through a gel matrix.
The father and baby kiwi both have a single bright band, which indicates that they only have Z genes in their DNA!
Because the chick matches the father kiwi's "fingerprint," we know that Manaia is a boy!
Manaia now weighs 669 grams (23 ounces) up from 600 in mid-May.
Meet and Greet
May 16, 2006
The New Zealand Ambassador and his wife, plus a local D.C. school class that they sponsor, came by for a Meet and Greet our young bird and Baxter (the education adult bird).
Manaia seems to be in a holding pattern of about 600 grams lately, but he is active and doing great. He was three months last Saturday. We are going to be sending out its DNA to a university in New Zealand for them to look at and hopefully get a clear answer on the sex.
Making a Home
April 28, 2006
Today he weighed in at a whopping 558 grams (about 20 ounces)! Manaia has settled into his enclosure quite well. He has been sniffing around the grasses and climbing on the driftwood pieces. Different "furniture" has been added so that he can have more natural surroundings and to make his life more interesting.
Nursery
April 17, 2006
Manaia now weighs 530 grams (about 17 ounces). He is very much at home in his new, larger nursery where he spends much of his time climbing and probing through driftwood, rocks, grasses, mulch and other naturalistic objects. He is still very friendly (for a kiwi) and we are very pleased with his growth and activity level.
Stretching
April 5, 2006
The chick currently weighs 476 grams and can really stretch itself.
Preliminary DNA tests suggest the chick is a female, but the definitive test won't be done until it is a little older.
In the next week or two the baby kiwi will be moved to a larger nursery, which will also have a web cam.
Nessus's third egg, laid on February 25, did not hatch. A necropsy was performed and it was determined that a bacterial infection killed the embryo.
Gaining Weight
March 22, 2006
The chick has been gaining about four to six grams a day and its current weight is 305 grams.
Video Clip
March 15, 2006
Video clip from the first few days of the chick's life.
Still Growing
March 6, 2006
The baby kiwi is growing. Its weight is now greater than its birth weight. In the middle picture, its bill is being measured.
Video Clip
February 27, 2006
Video clip from a few days ago of chick eating for the second time, his feeding reaction was perfect. It really smelled and picked up the food and ate several pieces. The diet is the same as the parents except that it is more finely chopped and a little more meaty. The food pan is put out in the late afternoon (left overnight) and the chick feeds itself.
Weight Gain
February 25, 2006
The chick gained weight again last night (not quite four grams, or 0.14 ounces). Its weight this morning is 228.2 grams (8.1 ounces). Yesterday is was 224.4 grams (7.9 ounces).
Also, Nessus laid her third egg of the season early this morning and the male is incubating it.
The picture shows them together a few hours after the egg was laid.
Feeding
February 24, 2006
The baby kiwi is being fed twice a day from a food dish in my lap and it responds very well to the food items.
Yesterday afternoon it ate several very small pieces of food and part of a bird-of-paradise pellet.
I will probably do this for only another day or so.
When I see weight gain for several days I will discontinue that.
Its response is perfect.
New Home
February 16, 2006
It is moved over to the isolate this morning and the temperature is lowered to about 85 degrees F. The isolate is a large box that allows the temperature to be controlled. It is sitting upright and looks more alert, though it still dozes a lot.
First Steps
February 15, 2006
Today it stood up, a little shaky but standing. The cutest chick in the world!
Healthy, too
February 14, 2006
Take a look at those wonderful feet.
I still can't believe this is happening.
It has a nice round belly and is defecating well.
I love it when the insides work.
First Picture
February 14, 2006
It's about 20 hours old in this picture.
Chick Hatches
February 13, 2006
The chick hatched between 12 and 12:45 p.m. and is very wet and tired.
By 4:30 a.m., it looks much more fluffy.
It is in an incubator until it can stand up, which should be this weekend. It will begin to eat sometime after eight days. Chicks typically hatch with a 64-percent internal yolk sac (the most of any bird), and that is what it is providing its nourishment.
Facts:
Parents—father is Maori, 20 years old; mother is Nessus, nine years old
Incubation time—64 days (typically 68 to 78 days)
Hatch weight—275.5 grams (9.7 ounces). Chicks typically lose 20 to 30 percent of their weight in the week after hatching.
Egg Development
February 11, 2006
Here the egg is being checked for development, a bright light shows the extent of the yolk, and a pencil is used to mark its extent so it can be
compared to subsequent days.
Incubation
January 9, 2006
For the first 29 days, the egg was incubated by the male.
In this species of kiwi, the male does all the incubating.
Then, on January 9, the egg is moved to an incubator.
Egg Laid
December 11, 2005
Nessus lays the egg.
She had laid an egg earlier in the year but it was rather small, and, unfortunately, infertile.
