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Makino Station

Kiwi monitoring

Listening to our birds.

Makino Station has a population of kiwi, and if you stay at Makino you are likely to hear kiwi calling just after dark. Most nights you will only have to sit on the balcony for 30 minutes to hear at least one kiwi calling.

Survival & Conservation

Without active predator control, less than 5% of kiwi chicks survive to adulthood (McLennan et al., 1996).

Introduced predators - primarily stoats and feral cats - target young chicks during their first six months until they reach approximately 1.2 kg, the weight threshold at which they can defend themselves. Integrated pest control operations are critical to ensuring chick survival.

It is important to note that while many areas in the backcountry of Aotearoa New Zealand can hear kiwi calling "all the time", this does not in itself define a healthy population. In a population where only 5% of chicks survive to adulthood, the population can exist almost exclusively as older birds, with an apparent healthy calling rate, until those adults naturally die and suddenly the forest is silent.

References & Further Reading

  1. McLennan, J. A., Potter, M. A., Robertson, H. A., Wakefield, A. J., Colbourne, R., Dew, L., Miles, J., & Miller, P. J. (1996). Role of predation in the decline of kiwi, Apteryx spp., in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 20(1), 27–35.
  2. Department of Conservation / Te Papa Atawhai. Kiwi Conservation & Predator Control Statistics. doc.govt.nz