Jim McMahon/Mapman®
New Zealand’s national bird, the kiwi, can’t fly. But volunteers are helping the threatened creatures make a soaring comeback in Wellington, the country’s capital.
Millions of kiwis, which live only in New Zealand, once roamed the nation. But today only about 68,000 remain. Their population has declined because of predators and habitat loss. Kiwis had not been seen in Wellington since the late 1800s. So a group of locals launched the Capital Kiwi Project in 2022 to bring them back.
The group’s goal is to relocate at-risk kiwis to protected areas in the capital. The areas are largely free of predators like ferrets, which prey on the birds’ eggs and chicks. This spring, the Capital Kiwi Project relocated its 250th kiwi.