Introducing.......

'Hinuera' 

The Newest Kiwi Chick to hatch! 

Sponsored by Hinuera School

Whakatane Kiwi Trust is hoping to be able to release Hinuera on Easter Sunday- Sunday 20th April. It will be a public celebration held at Ohope Beach School, so if you are free head along to be apart of this  very special occasion!!

A bit of information about me:

I hatched on the 3rd of March 2014 with no problems, and I weighed 250g.
I stayed in an incubator for two days before I was moved to a brooder. In the brooder I had the chance to stretch my legs and probe around in soil while I learnt to eat the artificial diet. Since us kiwi chicks hatch with such a large belly full of yolk, we feed off this for about a week before we need to start foraging for ourselves. We don’t need to be taught to probe for food in the ground by our parents as all our behaviour is instinctive, but usually we need some guidance to learn to eat the artificial diet!
I think I am a pretty good chick to raise and I’m learning to eat the food relatively quickly. I was in good condition at my five day health check and have been pretty active in my brooder so far. I am bright, alert and responsive but also tend to be a bit feisty and snappy! I’m beginning to reveal my personality too - I am usually a pretty placid chick.
Once I have learnt to eat the artificial food by myself and am growing well, I will be moved into an outdoor run where I will have lots of different burrows to choose from to sleep in during the day. But I will get the chance to forage amongst leaf litter and soil for live invertebrates.
It’s hard to tell if I am a boy or a girl at the moment, so before I am released, one of my feathers will be sent away so I can be sexed by my DNA! Once I have grown a bit more and shown to be doing well, I will be in the care of the Ohope Conservancy.