A New Year baby of a different kind is getting ready to enter the world at the Pukaha Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre in the Tararua district.
Two kiwi eggs in the kiwi nursery at There are two kiwi eggs in the kiwi nursery. Photo: Pukaha Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre/Facebook
Staff received two kiwi eggs from Rimutaka Forest Park late last week, with one now starting the hatching process.
It takes up to five days for a chick to hatch and staff turn the eggs every four hours.
Conservation Manager Todd Jenkinson said they put the eggs on display, meaning visitors might be lucky and catch a peak of the kiwi hatching.
"I've been working with kiwi for many years, and I never cease to get the goosebumps when you see a kiwi hatch and when they hatch on display and seeing the joy on people's faces. We had an English tourist last year who started crying when she saw her first kiwi hatch."
Mr Jenkinson said they'll also post updates on their social media pages.
He said once the kiwi hatches, they wait until it loses about 25 percent of its hatching weight before they start feeding.
"They're born with such a big yolk, but when they hatch, that gets absorbed into the abdomen. With the kiwi it sits in there for about seven to eight days before it actually gets fully absorbed, so you don't feed it for up to seven or eight days," he said.
[facebook] https://www.facebook.com/PukahaMountBruce/photos/a.10151851879324190.1073741832.188960899189/10156008455189190/
He added if you do feed them before the yolk is absorbed it can go rancid, which can be fatal for young kiwi chicks.
Mr Jenkinson said the latest addition is a North Island brown kiwi, but they've not yet given the incoming chick a name.
"We're not going to count our kiwi before they hatch," he said.
He said they're expecting to have another six to eight eggs this hatching season.