On June 26th 2013 a young female kiwi was hit by a car at the beginning of the Waitotara Valley. The bird rescue was contacted around 9:45 pm by the driver of the car but we were unable to get to her that night. We notified the Department of Conservation and they went early the next morning and picked her up. She was taken to Wildbase at Massey University for treatment. Even though the car was travelling at 70 km when it hit the kiwi she only suffered severe bruising and the loss of a large number of feathers from the spine and rump area.

Good feather re-growth

After a month at Wildbase the kiwi was delivered to Bird Rescue allow her time to re-grow her feathers in our large Opus kiwi aviary. Shedid not settled into captivity and refused to eat a captive kiwi diet, either at Wildbase , or with us. She paced the fence line in a small pen we had made for her within a 30 m x 15 m area. She quickly dug out of the small pen and has been thriving in the large area. She eats worms and other insects in the aviary and a wonderful team of volunteers search for huhu grubs and bring us rotten logs full of insects for her every few days. Mangaweka School students have been part of the huhu hunting team.

Fossiking for food in our Kiwi Aviary

Her feathers are growing well and when the Vets at Wildbase and the Department of Conservation Rangers decide the feathers have regrown enough to provide protection from the cold and rain, she will be released back into the Waitotara valley, well away from any roads.