The kiwi is an internationally recognised New Zealand icon, which is at risk of extinction. Briefly introduce kiwi, explain why they are endangered, and outline efforts to help them survive. The kiwi is an internationally recognised New Zealand icon and it is a special, secretive, native bird that is harmless and defenceless, which is why its numbers are declining rapidly. Kiwi is also used as a symbol to represent New Zealand's nationhood. Kiwi birds has a slow reproduction of one egg at a time and a huge number of mammalian predators that attack all throughout their life-cycle, and kill of their species, putting kiwi endangered and at risk of extinction. Since kiwi is New Zealand's national bird, it is natural that many people and communities help kiwi's survival in many ways through organisations, sanctuaries, kiwi-houses, donations, charities and government schemes such as the Department of Conservation (DOC).
The kiwi bird is only native to New Zealand and it is a small, flightless bird with bristly, hair-like feathers that is nocturnal; hunting at night with its long beak to dig deep into moist ground to eat bugs and worms. Kiwi is a member of the ratite group including moa and ostrich (Cooper et al., 1992, p. 8742). Closest relative to Kiwi is the extinct elephant bird of Madagascar, found by DNA tests they belong to the same "mitochondrial sequence data" (Mitchell et al., 2014).
Figure 1: Ratite Evolution to kiwi birds and closest relative (Mitchell et al., 2014).
There are five species of kiwis: North Island brown kiwi, Tokoeka, Rowi, Great spotted kiwi and Little spotted kiwi (Kiwis for Kiwi, n.d.a). Kiwis are adaptable to live in many sorts of areas from mangroves, native forests, grasslands, scrubs and farmland (Kiwis for Kiwi, n.d.b). Their population can increase when there are not many harmful predators around, control for "land development pressures" and the ground in a moist condition (Pierce et al.
