Save the Kiwi translocated 324 birds during the 2025 kiwi handling season. Photo: supplied/Save the Kiwi
A record year for Save the Kiwi has seen 324 birds translocated during the 2025 kiwi-handling season, and the conservation group hopes to broaden its reach in the year ahead.
Its Kōhanga Kiwi and translocation strategy aims to supercharge the growth of viable, sustainable kiwi populations in suitable habitat across Aotearoa.
Save the Kiwi helps create and bolster kiwi populations by hatching chicks in captivity, releasing them into predator-free sites and relocating them, once the site reaches about half-capacity.
In its recent 2025 Translocation Report, Save the Kiwi reported that birds had been translocated to Nelson, Wellington, Taranaki, Tongariro and Waiheke Island this year. The birds came from Kapiti Island, Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari and Pōnui Island.
Save the Kiwi chief executive Michelle Impey said it had an excellent year.
"It's a little bit higher than previous years, but compared to kiwi conservation historically, it is a scale and pace that we haven't seen before," she said.
Save the Kiwi chief executive Michelle Impey says it had an excellent year. Photo: supplied/Save the Kiwi
Kiwi heading to Coromandel in 2026
Between 2012-24, 145 Coromandel brown kiwi were released onto Motutapu Island in the Hauraki Gulf to foster a robust breeding population in a predator-free environment. That population is now expected to comprise between 268-320 adult kiwi.
From 2026, Save the Kiwi plans to expand its operations, and begin translocating kiwi from Motutapu Island and the connecting Rangitoto Island to the Coromandel Peninsula.
From 2027 onwards, Save the Kiwi aims to translocate up to 100 kiwi a year. Photo: supplied/Save the Kiwi
"It is the first time since we started this work seven years ago and since the first birds were released in Motutapu Island over a decade ago that we can now return birds to those sites who were generous enough to contribute eggs and chicks to Motutapu Island," Impey said.
From 2027 onwards, Save the Kiwi aims to translocate up to 100 kiwi a year.
The initial recipient sites will be Te Mātā, Kūaotunu, Moehau, Whenuakite and Kapowai, who helped establish the kiwi population on Motutapu-Rangitoto.
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