Protecting Tutukaka Coast's Biodiversity

​The brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) is one of NZ most common kiwi species; the population was steadily declining. By the 1980s kiwi were locally extinct in many areas, largely due to predation from introduced mammals. In 1996, it was estimated that North Island kiwi had probably declined by at least 90% during the previous century but with the recent years' ongoing conservation efforts, numbers have been coming back.

​

The brown kiwi lives in proximity with human settlements. The closeness of people has created risks to these birds through increased contact with dogs, cats and cars.

However, it has also been a great advantage to the recovery of the species - hours and hours of effort from community initiatives in restoration like this one brown have been possible by the easiness of access to the brown kiwi niche.

​

The brown kiwi is faster at breeding than other kiwi, producing up to two eggs a clutch, and one to two clutches a year, as opposed to the more usual one egg per year in other kiwi species. However, much of that good reproductive work is undone by the ravages of dogs, stoats, and loss of habitat. 

​

They prefer damp gullies in native forest and dense shrubland but are also found in plantation forest, rough pasture, around wetlands, and in shrubland with lots of gorse or blackberry.

The birds generally have multiple daytime shelters including burrows, fallen nīkau fronds, hollow logs, tight vegetation and slash from land-clearing or forest harvest. They will also roost on the edge of roads or bush. They can be found running around roads at night and through properties. One of these could be your property, or your neighbour's.

​

Northland brown kiwi can travel widely. 

Other kiwi live to be 40–65 years old, but the Northland brown kiwi averages only 14 years mainly for the impact of predators. 

​

Check the facts of Tutukaka Coast kiwis, released in healthy bush areas in the past few years.