 Care for kiwi with a sore nose
Rehabilitation of a great spotted kiwi who
injured her beak during a release last weekend will make a valuable
contribution to our knowledge about how kiwi bills grow.
The adult female, Mohua, was one of six - three breeding pairs,
being released into Nelson’s Lake Rotoiti region as part
of a Department of Conservation programme to reintroduce the kiwis
to the area that has not hosted great spotted kiwi since the 1920s.
Intensive pest management control has been carried out throughout
the region. This release is stage one of a recovery programme that
hopes to see 10 breeding pairs eventually released into the area.
During the release Mohua broke the very tip of her top beak, right
where her nostrils are. Kiwis are the only birds to have their
nostrils at the end of long bills, essential to help them scent
worms when they are digging underground. She was sent immediately
to the NZ Wildlife Health Centre at Massey for care.
Massey vet Kerri Morgan was present at the release. “She’s
lost about a centimetre off the end of her bill. She’s lost
one nostril but there is still one left and we are going to try
and reconstruct a second nostril.”
Wildlife Ward head Brett Gartrell says while she is regaining her
strength and appetite, it will take some months before it is known
whether she will be able to be released back into the wild.
“There is nothing in the literature about how kiwi beaks
grow. We’ve
contacted holders of kiwi and there has been nothing like this
injury reported before. We don’t know whether the nostril
will grow back or if we bore another nostril, whether the keratin
will grow over the new hole.”
Dr Gartrell says, like fingernails, kiwi beaks grow downwards,
away from the body. But there is something special about kiwi beaks
that stop the keratin growing over the nostrils. What the veterinarians
observe in the ward will add to knowledge about kiwi physiology.
The great spotted kiwi are more stressful than the smaller brown
kiwi and don’t do well in captivity. There are about 17,000
left in the wild, mostly at the top of the South Island and there
no breeding pairs in captivity.
Once deemed fit enough, Mohua will be transferred to the Mt Bruce
Wildlife Reserve where she can be monitored to assess whether she
can be returned to the wild.
The Wildlife Health Centre at Massey is sponsored by Shell New
Zealand.
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