Okarito Kiwi

Apteryx rowi - Kiwi d'Okarito

Kiwi d'Okarito
Systematics
  • Order 
    :

    Apterygiformes

  • Family
    :

    Aptérygidés

  • Genus
    :

    Apteryx

  • Species
    :

    rowi

Descriptor

Tennyson, Palma, Robertson, HA, Worthy Gill, BJ, 2003

Biometrics
  • Size
    : 55 cm
  • Wingspan
    : -
  • Weight
    : 1575 à 3570 g
Geographic range

Distribution

Identification

Kiwi d'Okarito
Kiwi d'Okarito

Okarito Kiwi is the rarest of kiwis. Endemic to the South Island, it is a nocturnal bird more often heard than seen. It is a large, brown kiwi with soft, pale brown feathers streaked with brown and black, short, strong tarsometatarses, as well as powerful feet, digits and claws. Its long, pale bill has nostrils at the end of the upper mandible that are slightly longer than the lower. It is an apterous bird, still having embryonic wings, and it does not have a tail.

Subspecific information monotypic species

Foreign names

  • Kiwi d'Okarito,
  • Kiwi de Okarito,
  • kiwi-de-okarito,
  • Okaritokiwi,
  • okaritói barna kivi,
  • Rowi,
  • Kiwi bruno di Okarito,
  • okaritokivi,
  • Okaritokivi,
  • kivi hodvábny,
  • kivi okaritský,
  • Okarito Kiwi,
  • okaritonruskokiivi,
  • kiwi d'Okarito,
  • kiwi szary,
  • Рови,
  • オカリトキーウィ,
  • 白眶几维,
  • 奧卡里多褐鷸鴕,

Voice song and cries

Kiwi d'Okarito

At night, the male emits a shrill call, a high-pitched, repeated ascending whistle 15 to 20 times; the female has a rough, guttural call that she also repeats 10 to 20 times. The calls are loud during the night, particularly in the first two hours of darkness.

Habitat

Native podocarp lowland forest.

Behaviour character trait

The Okarito Kiwi is nocturnal. During the day, it rests in a burrow, a hollow tree or under thick vegetation, and emerges shortly after dusk. It feeds by slowly walking and tapping the ground, and when prey is detected, it probes the leaf litter; occasionally it may plunge its bill deep into the ground. Occasionally it emits a territorial call each night to signal its presence on its territory and keep in contact with the female. Pairs sing in duets, with the partner responding for several seconds after the first call. It is a very territorial bird, it fights with its congeners with sharp claws and talons.

Flight

It is a flightless bird, it has retained vestigial wings and has no tail.

Dietfeeding habits

He mainly feeds on small invertebrates, particularly earthworms, beetle larvae, cicadas and mites; he also consumes centipedes, spiders, crickets, Weta and crayfish, as well as certain fallen fruits.

Reproduction nesting

Okarito Kiwi is a monogamous bird, with a nest that is established in a burrow at the base of a hollow tree, or in a hollow tree trunk. Its breeding season stretches from July to March, laying a single large pale green egg from July until January. Incubation lasts from 70 to 80 days and the male incubates the egg more during the day, with both members of the couple sharing the task at night. The chicks are semi-precocial, leaving the nest at 5-7 days of age, they return to the nest for several months but are independent at 14 days. The egg may be accidentally destroyed by the kiwi's powerful claws. Juveniles disperse over no more than five kilometres, and they are able to reproduce from four years of age. It is a territorial bird and will fight its congeners with powerful legs and sharp claws.

Geographic range

Distribution

The species is confined to a small area of inland lowland forest in Okarito at South Westland, as well as the Cook Strait region. Today the native population is limited to 10,000 ha of coastal podocarp forest. The Okarito Kiwi is particularly associated with this habitat.

Threats - protection

IUCN conservation status
Extinct
Threatened
Least
concern
Extinc
in the Wild
Near
threatened
Not
evaluated
EX EW CR EN VU NT LC NE

By the 1990s, the population of Okarito Kiwis was in decline due to predation of chicks and young by stoats, and some adults killed by dogs and vehicles. In 1995, their population was estimated to be 160 birds. The 'Nest Egg' operation (removal of eggs or chicks from the wild for transfer to a rearing facility like the Department of Conservation's Franz Joseph Pre-Release Pens), then later transferring the birds from a minimum weight of 1.2 kg to predator-free Motuara Island until they could survive stoat presence, allowed the population to grow to approximately 200 birds in 2000. A large-scale trapping programme of the stoats in the South Okarito forest between 2001 and 2005 failed to protect chick predation. The Nest Egg operation was reinstated and the population again experienced rapid growth, to 375 birds in 2012. New populations had been introduced to Mana and Blumine Islands, but the birds there have yet to reproduce as they are not yet mature. IUCN status: endangered.

Sources of information

Other sources of interest

QRcode Kiwi d'OkaritoSpecification sheet created on 30/07/2023 by
Translation by AI Oiseaux.net
published: - Updated: 07-02-2016
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