Kiwi mahi – Maungatautari
This year Anne-Maree helped out with the kiwi catching at Maungatautari for translocation. This is the follow-on of the operation nest egg project.
A few years ago, operation nest egg was a project run by save the kiwi where adult breeding kiwi were in various locations around the north island, fitted with transmitters and their eggs lifted and transported to hatcheries, then released into Maungatautari for safe keeping until they could be translocated to areas where predators have been controlled to acceptable numbers considered safe for kiwi to breed.
Many of these breeding pairs were located within our Ngāti Mutunga rohe, mostly Makino Forest but also Moki and Okoki. Young kiwi, hatched in unprotected areas, have only 5% rate of survival in the wild as they are usually left to fend for themselves 1-2 days after hatching. So far Kiwi have been trans-located to Taranaki Mounga, Wellington and Tongariro. The translocation season has finished for this year, hopefully we can get involved again next year.
