New Zealand is home to five species of kiwis. The brown kiwi is the most common and is only found on the north island. The great spotted kiwi is the largest, while the little spotted is the smallest. The tokeoka can grown larger than the brown kiwi. And then there is the rowi.
The rowi is only found in a very small area of the South Island and there are only about 600 known birds in existence. The adults mate for life and typically have one egg each year. Unlike other kiwis, rowi young usually stay with their parents for a few years even though they are self sufficient. Older chicks have even been known to help share in egg sitting time so the parents can leave and feed.
Because of their extremely low numbers, all male kiwis are tagged with a radio beacon so the Department of Conservation can keep an eye on them and learn when there are successful matings, territory boundaries, and other scientifically important information.
While staying in Okarito, we signed up for a nighttime kiwi walk. Our guide, Ian, has been leading these walks for years and has very high success rates of seeing wild kiwis.
The night started late for us because sunset isn’t until past 930 and kiwis are nocturnal birds. We met with Ian and learned how we would work together to listen for the sound kiwis make while searching for food. We also saw a map that outlines current mating pairs in a small area of the forest, their territory and if they currently had an egg or chick with them. Off we headed into the night to hopefully see a kiwi!
After arriving at the forest, we walked down a narrow trail for a while until we arrived at an area well inside Moss & Rico’s territory. Then the waiting began. It was still light out, so we took the opportunity to look around the forest some and find a good spot to start standing patiently and listen for the distinctive walk or call of a kiwi.
We didn’t have long to wait (though when mosquitoes are buzzing all over you it feels like a long time)! We started to learn the distinctive slow walk through leaves and anxiously got into position (shoulder to shoulder in a straight line on the trail) in the direction of the sound, waiting for the kiwi to come into view. Then we heard a loud call from a male kiwi. It was close! Finally a full grown kiwi jumped out right in front of us on the trail. He stopped and kind of stared at us for a minute. This isn’t really true because they have awful eyesight, he was probably actually smelling us. Then he proceeded to walk directly in front of the entire row of us before reaching the end and entering the woods behind us. We thought that would be the last of him, but then he walked up the entire row from our back before crossing back over the trail to the side he started on. WOW!
However, Ian had been confident that there were two kiwis together initially and we were still hearing sounds from another one, so we maintained or position and waited. The kiwi we were waiting on was Rusty, a yearling chick of Moss & Rico. We saw a branch constantly shaking and splashy foot sounds that never changed position. After another five minutes of this Ian decided that something was wrong and he needed to find the little kiwi to see if it needed help. We stayed on the trail while he picked his way carefully into the woods to find Rusty. A minute later Ian called for some help and I jumped into action. I stepped carefully into the forest and almost immediately had water over my boots, it was very marshy as a result of the previous week of rain. I made my way over to Ian and he instructed me to hold his flashlight while he helped Rusty. Rusty was trapped in a scrub bush because somehow his radio tracker had managed to get a branch/vine wrapped all the way around it and he was impossibly tangled. Kiwis don’t use their bills for fighting, instead they have horribly long claws on their dinosaur like feet that can cut you deeply. Ian did his best to try to hold the feet while unwrapping the bush, but Rusty still managed to slice his hand. After freeing Rusty, Ian set him on dry ground and he scampered off while we carefully made our way back to the group.
Wow! I was within touching distance to two of the world’s rarest kiwis. I don’t know how I will ever top this experience.
Life’s fun!