WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) 鈥� The kiwi, New Zealand鈥檚 sacred national bird, vanished from the hills around Wellington more than a century ago. Now the capital’s residents are waging an improbable citizen campaign to return the endangered flightless birds to the city.
鈥淭hey are a part of who we are and our sense of belonging here,鈥� said Paul Ward, founder of the Capital Kiwi Project, a charitable trust. 鈥淏ut they鈥檝e been gone from these hills for well over a century and we decided as Wellingtonians that wasn鈥檛 right.鈥�
On a hill wreathed in mist above the dark sea that runs between New Zealand鈥檚 North and South Islands, Ward and others crossed rugged farmland late on Tuesday night, carrying seven crates in silence by dim red torchlight. Inside each one nestled a kiwi, including the 250th bird relocated to Wellington since the Capital Kiwi Project began.
Birds receive a quiet welcome to new homes
The kiwi gives New Zealanders the name by which they鈥檙e often known. It鈥檚 a shy and odd-looking bird with underdeveloped wings and a whiskery face.
Spiritually significant for many New Zealanders, the kiwi鈥檚 image appears everywhere, including on the tail of the country鈥檚 air force planes 鈥� curious for a bird with no tail which can鈥檛 fly.
It鈥檚 thought that there were 12 million of the birds roaming the landscape before humans arrived in New Zealand. Today only about 70,000 kiwi are left across the country, with the population dropping 2% each year.
In the hills where Wellington鈥檚 kiwi now live and breed, the only late-night sound on Tuesday was the whoosh of wind turbines. Ward and his friends set their crates down in pairs, slid them open and gently tilted the boxes.
Some in the small group of hushed onlookers were tearful. One man chanted a karakia, a M膩ori prayer.
From each crate, a long, curved beak eventually protruded as kiwi took their first tentative steps into the shadowed landscape, then sped to a run and disappeared into the darkness.
Kiwi make their first Parliament visit
One place kiwi had never set foot until this week was inside New Zealand鈥檚 Parliament. Hours before Wellington鈥檚 seven newest residents were transported to their hillside home, they were carried into Parliament鈥檚 grand banquet hall by handlers for a celebration of the 250th kiwi’s arrival in the city.
Lawmakers and schoolchildren alike expressed whispered delight at seeing the timid, nocturnal birds up close, many for the first time, as conservation workers cradled the large birds like human babies, with their gnarled feet outstretched.
鈥淭his animal has given us as a people so much in terms of our sense of identity,鈥� Ward told The Associated Press. 鈥淲e want to challenge our civic leaders, our politicians and say this is a relationship we need to honor.鈥�
Rare birds move from sanctuaries to urban life
New Zealand is home to some of the world鈥檚 . Some have only survived because of against-all-odds conservation programs, at times with uncertain funding.
Initiatives decades ago saw all surviving birds of some species moved onto or into sanctuaries where they could be carefully monitored and protected, but where few New Zealanders would ever see one.
Ward and his group had a different dream: that New Zealand鈥檚 iconic national bird could flourish alongside people in a bustling capital city, where human encroachment and introduced predators had wiped out the kiwi before.
鈥淲here people are is also the places where we can bring them back because we鈥檝e got the means to do that guardianship,鈥� Ward said.
Thousands of traps protect capital鈥檚 kiwi
Although unmanaged kiwi populations are shrinking, their numbers in carefully managed wild bird sanctuaries 鈥� so much, in fact, that some of these protected areas have run out of room for them.
That鈥檚 prompted their relocation to places like Wellington, where groups such as Ward鈥檚 rally residents to embrace their new neighbors. Kiwi have been spotted by late night mountain bikers and on backyard security camera footage in the capital, he said.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e living and calling and being encountered on the hills surrounding our city,鈥� Ward said.
That’s taken work. Over the past decade, efforts between landowners, the local M膩ori tribe and the Capital Kiwi Project have produced a sprawling, 24,000-hectare tract of land where kiwi can roam.
It鈥檚 dotted with more than 5,000 traps for stoats, the main predator of kiwi chicks. So far, the Wellington population has a 90% chick survival rate.
New Zealand aims to become predator free
The kiwi initiative is part of New Zealand鈥檚 quest to of introduced predators, including feral cats, possums, rats and stoats, by the year 2050. Since a previous government established the target in 2016 its chances of success have been debated, but community groups have taken up the work in earnest.
Parts of Wellington are now entirely free of mammalian predators apart from household pets, and native birds flourish. Volunteers monitor suburbs with military precision for the appearance of a single rat.
鈥淲hen I think of endangered species globally, for the most part you can鈥檛 do much other than campaign or donate money,鈥� said Michelle Impey, chief executive of Save the Kiwi. 鈥淏ut we have this incredible movement throughout the country where everyday people are taking it on under their own steam to do what they can to protect a threatened species.鈥�
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