Kiwi birds, a national symbol of New Zealand, are in danger of becoming extinct. Who is responsible? And what can be done to save them?
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 This group is hunting for some of the world's rarest eggs.
00:10 They're searching for the endangered kiwi birds
00:13 of Aotearoa, New Zealand, to steal their eggs
00:17 and save them from predators.
00:19 Almost 95% of kiwi chicks are killed in the wild.
00:23 If nothing is done, they will likely disappear.
00:27 In New Zealand, we call ourselves Kiwi.
00:30 It would be pretty bad if we let our national bird die.
00:35 Thousands of people have joined a massive program
00:38 to defend the kiwi and kill their predators.
00:42 They're showing what it takes for a country
00:43 to protect its natural treasures.
00:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:52 In the lush hills of the Coromandel Peninsula
01:03 in New Zealand's North Island, a remarkable rescue mission
01:06 is underway, giving signs of hope
01:09 for an endangered national symbol, the kiwi.
01:12 Few people ever see kiwi in the wild.
01:15 Bronnie Kennedy has.
01:17 The encounter motivated her to help save them from extinction.
01:21 I have actually seen a kiwi on a visit to New Zealand
01:24 some years ago.
01:26 It was amazing to see that tiny little bird that
01:31 is so vulnerable.
01:33 And the group of kiwis, as in New Zealanders,
01:36 that I was with, they themselves had never
01:38 seen a kiwi in the wild.
01:39 So it was a pretty amazing experience
01:41 to have that opportunity.
01:43 The retired schoolteacher is part of a project
01:46 to stop the decline of the kiwi population.
01:49 New Zealand was once home to some 12 million kiwi.
01:53 Now there are less than 70,000.
01:55 At least 20 are killed every week
01:58 by invasive animals like stoats, ferrets, and rats.
02:02 Morning, everyone.
02:03 Hi, Bronnie.
02:04 Beautiful day.
02:05 Yeah, it is.
02:06 To save the kiwi, these rescuers
02:08 must become like the predators.
02:11 They're going hunting for kiwi nests to steal their eggs
02:15 and raise the chicks in safety.
02:17 Diane Prince is trained to find the elusive birds.
02:21 She calls this operation an egg lift.
02:25 The kiwi are in decline in New Zealand
02:29 because of introduced predators, mainly the stoat.
02:33 The stoat was introduced to New Zealand
02:36 to control the rabbits that were introduced to New Zealand.
02:41 But the stoats, they just headed straight
02:43 into our beautiful bush and started killing our birds.
02:50 And they killed 95% of all kiwi chicks
02:55 that hatch before they're like six months old.
02:59 In New Zealand, we call ourselves Kiwi.
03:02 So it would be pretty bad if we let our national bird die out.
03:11 [BIRDS CHIRPING]
03:15 Diane uses a radio antenna to pick up signals
03:18 from a tag on a wild kiwi.
03:20 We're getting closer to the nest.
03:25 I don't know exactly how close.
03:29 Over that way.
03:31 Like, the dad will be asleep in there because it's daytime.
03:35 And I want him not to wake up.
03:38 So it means we have to be really quiet and quite sneaky.
03:44 She's found the kiwi burrow deep in a hillside.
03:47 The father incubates while the mother forages for food.
03:51 Diane doesn't want to disturb the father in case he flees.
03:54 But he doesn't even stir.
03:59 Their placid nature makes them vulnerable to predators.
04:05 Diane's finding it hard to reach deep into the burrow.
04:10 He was too far.
04:12 The nest was too long.
04:14 It had too long an entrance for me to actually reach in.
04:17 And I'd touched him quite a few times,
04:19 trying to like, and going, oh, I can touch him.
04:22 But I can't.
04:23 Like, I actually have to be able to put my hand right
04:25 underneath him to pull the eggs out.
04:28 And yeah, I couldn't.
04:32 Finally, she manages to retrieve a rare natural treasure.
04:38 It's held by the size of the ESL Hill, all the eggs.
04:45 So that would be 60 days.
04:47 He should be quite a developed chick in there
04:50 with, you know, feathered and everything.
04:52 So when you sign the torch, you shouldn't
04:54 be able to see through the egg, which
04:56 is absolutely what I can't do.
04:58 So there's a chick in there.
05:01 This hunt has yielded two eggs.
05:05 You see how big those eggs are.
05:07 Two eggs like that, you're looking at 900 grams
05:10 worth of effort the female's got to put in
05:13 to grow those eggs inside her.
05:17 And she's probably only like a 2 and 1/2 kilo bird at most.
05:22 So it's a massive energy demand.
05:25 And if she does two clutches of those a year,
05:27 so she's laying four eggs, yeah, that's enough.
05:32 It's really enough.
05:34 How many eggs have you lifted?
05:37 Over the years, hundreds.
05:40 I haven't kept count.
05:42 But yeah, I've been doing this for a wee while.
05:46 It's like tomorrow, we're going hard.
05:48 And we're going to try and do six egg lifts in one morning.
05:52 Oh, hi, Kelsey.
05:53 Diane here.
05:54 How are you doing?
05:55 Hi, Diane.
05:55 I've got two good eggs for you, mate.
05:57 Amazing.
05:58 Yay.
05:58 Yeah.
05:59 Yeah, it's really good.
06:02 Bronnie's job is to drive the precious cargo several hours
06:05 south to their new home.
06:08 I feel like I've done something amazing in my day.
06:13 Quite a responsibility to have two Kiwis,
06:18 one of the most endangered species of bird life in my car.
06:23 This is where the eggs will be hatched,
06:30 behind a fence that keeps out stoats and rats.
06:34 Helen McCormick is the zoologist in charge of the hatchery.
06:38 So this room we've got here is our Kiwi incubation room.
06:41 And we've currently got 10 eggs in here
06:44 in various stages of incubation.
06:47 And then they'll stay in here until they're ready to hatch,
06:51 and they'll move through to our hatchery.
06:54 This is one of two main Kiwi hatching facilities
06:57 in New Zealand.
06:58 The eggs are maturing in special purpose incubators.
07:01 Helen checks their progress by whistling.
07:03 And I'm whistling to try and stimulate them to watch
07:12 how much the egg is moving.
07:14 And it's an indication of health of the chick.
07:16 I can see how much energy the chick has.
07:19 So to see great big wobbles on the bench like that,
07:23 you could see the whole egg moving.
07:25 It's fantastic.
07:25 That's exactly what we want to see.
07:28 Next, she uses a flashlight to see through the shell
07:32 for signs that the chick has broken
07:34 into its internal air cell.
07:36 So he's partway through hatch now.
07:38 And I'll move him through to the hatch room
07:40 now, where he may spend another couple of days
07:42 before he fully breaks out of the shell.
07:44 So that whole process, hatching process,
07:46 from internal pip to hatching out,
07:48 can take three to five days.
07:51 So it's a really long process.
07:52 And by the end of it, they're pretty tired.
07:56 On the Coromandel Peninsula, Bronnie is on another mission,
08:00 hunting the hunters.
08:02 Each month, she hikes through bushland to check traps.
08:06 Kiwi won't be safe in the wild as long as predators roam free.
08:11 This is our trap.
08:14 Well, you can see we don't have any kill in this one.
08:17 The amount of pounds per square inch that these traps have
08:21 is quite incredible.
08:22 And they're really difficult to reset.
08:24 And you have to be very careful you don't get your hand in the way.
08:28 The government has set the goal of making New Zealand predator
08:31 free by the year 2050.
08:35 The trappers use bait, such as fishy liquid and eggs.
08:39 Most of Bronnie's traps are empty.
08:42 But finally, she has some success.
08:44 Ah, we have one.
08:46 A small rat, but a rat nonetheless.
08:51 Yeah, I think he's been here a while.
08:55 One less rat on the Coromandel.
08:59 We fill it now and hope that another rat passing this way
09:04 will meet the same fate.
09:06 The program is working.
09:08 In some areas, the kiwi population decline is slowing
09:13 and even reversing.
09:15 At the hatchery, there's one less kiwi egg
09:25 and one new kiwi chick.
09:29 This one almost didn't survive.
09:32 This guy had his foot over the top of his head.
09:36 And that stopped him being able to push out of the shell.
09:39 And he was actually stuck.
09:41 So I had to assist him to be able to get out of the egg
09:45 and allow him to bring that foot down so it's not over the head.
09:48 And then he was able to push his last just out of the shell.
09:53 In the wild, that one would have actually died.
09:56 A chick bred here has a 65% chance
09:59 of surviving to adulthood, compared to just 5% in the wild.
10:04 Each year, around 250 chicks are born in hatcheries.
10:09 Helen McCormick has helped raise many of them.
10:12 So I have handled a lot, but I still
10:15 don't take it for granted.
10:16 It is still very, very special, especially when they've hatched
10:20 and they're very young like that.
10:22 It is a very special feeling to be able to handle them.
10:26 After several weeks, the chicks are
10:31 taken to one of several predator-fenced sanctuaries
10:34 and released to roam and breed in safety.
10:37 That is their forever home.
10:41 And they're released onto that mountain site.
10:44 But then there's ongoing work because we
10:46 want to then take their chicks from that site
10:51 and move them back out into the wild.
10:53 The kiwi is a unique animal.
10:56 So that is one part of it to save the kiwi,
10:58 to make sure that we have them for future generations
11:01 and that people will be able to see them in the wild.
11:03 But of course, it's not always just about the kiwi.
11:05 They are like an indicator species for the health
11:07 of our forest as well.
11:09 So if we are able to get the kiwi surviving well out
11:12 in the forest, then lots of other species
11:15 are surviving well as well.
11:17 And that's why we want to see a nice, healthy forest
11:20 and healthy animals in that forest.
11:23 New Zealand's Kiwi Repopulation Program
11:26 costs tens of millions of dollars annually
11:29 and takes an army of helpers like Bronnie.
11:32 And it's expanding, with predator-controlled areas
11:36 set to double in size in the coming years.
11:38 You can see part of this bushland here.
11:40 It's a lovely, thick forest.
11:41 If we can get a corridor of that continuing
11:44 along the peninsula, it will be a nice environment for the kiwi,
11:48 provided, of course, we can keep the stoats and rats out
11:52 of that area.
11:53 Living in such a beautiful country as New Zealand
11:56 makes you really grateful for the nature,
12:00 the incredible diversity that this country has.
12:05 And I suppose it's one small way of giving back.
12:09 But the kiwi defenders can't afford to rest.
12:12 Any pause could let the predators return.
12:16 New Zealand is showing what it takes for a country
12:18 to preserve its unique native wonders.
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12:26 [MUSIC ENDS]
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