First In 150 Years, Buru Kiwi Was Born In New Zealand's Wellington Wildlife
JAKARTA - Conservation experts managed to find two kiwi birds in Wellington, the bird's first wild birth recorded in the New Zealand capital in more than 150 years.
The two new kiwi cubs were born just a year after Capital Kiwi Project reintroduced the country's iconic national bird to the city of about 400,000 people.
Their birth in Makara, a suburb that is only 25 minutes from the center of Wellington City, made the total local population to 65 brown kiwis on the North Island.
Kiwi chocolate is one of the most common kiwi species in New Zealand, but according to New Zealand's Department of Conservation, these birds could become extinct in the wild within two generations without conservation and adequate support.
Launching CNN December 1, 18 other brown kiwi cubs are expected to hatch as part of the Capital Kiwi Project, which is expected to restore a large-scale wild kiwi population in the New Zealand capital.
The project plans to use transmitters to monitor two new kiwi birds and other hatchling birds.
Including birds that cannot fly, the number of kiwi populations in New Zealand previously reached 12 million. Recently, its population has now fallen to only 68,000, according to the charity Save the Kiwi.
The charity is one of around 90 Kiwi conservation programs aimed at increasing the population.
In 1991, the New Zealand Department of Conservation launched the Kiwi Recovery Plan, which focuses on predator control and community involvement.
According to the New Zealand Department of Conservation, the country's kiwi population decreases by an average of 2 percent per year. Most are caused by predators such as minks, cats, dogs andATs.
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Meanwhile, 95 percent of kiwis born in the wild in New Zealand were killed before they reached adulthood, according to Save the Kiwi.
"The only problem for an adult kiwi is a stray dog. The wild boars ate the kiwi children before they reached the ideal weight," Capital Kiwi Project team leader Paul Ward told CNN earlier this year.
Ward expressed optimism for the project, after the release of 63 kiwi birds near Wellington last November, marking the first time in a century wild kiwi birds have lived in the region.