A nine day old Kiwi chick was assist-hatched at Orana Wildlife Park last week.

Orana Wildlife Park staff received the perfect early Christmas present ten days ago - the first successful Kiwi hatching at the Park in nine years! The little Kiwi was assist-hatched meaning staff had to carefully remove layers of shell and membrane to free the bird. Park staff, who were hatching a Kiwi chick for the first time, were given step by step advice from Claire Travers of Kiwi Encounter (Rotorua) via speaker phone resulting in the successful hatch.

Head Keeper of Native Fauna, Tara Atkinson, says the baby was a 'miracle' egg: "The chick is one of the smallest Kiwi hatched in captivity so some staff have affectionately nick-named it Piwi for now! We experienced problems throughout the incubation and hatching process and feared for the chick's survival. We considered it a miracle egg as at one stage we thought it had died."

The problems keepers encountered were numerous: when the egg was taken for incubation, multiple holes were found so staff patched them with clear nail varnish. Keepers then became concerned at the lack of development of the egg and feared bacteria had seeped into it. When the chick attempted to 'internal pip' (break into the air cell), it missed the air cell by a few millimeters so keepers removed some egg shell to enable the chick to breathe. "The Kiwi was trying to hatch out the side of the egg, rather than through the top. Generally, if the chick misses the air cell then it will not survive hence the reason staff created the hole" adds Tara (Image: OWP Kiwi Chick Internal Pip Hole).

The chick then attempted to hatch for a period of 24 hours before staff were advised to intervene once again and chip away the shell and layers of membrane to remove the Kiwi (Image: OWP Kiwi Chick Assist Hatch). On hatching, the chick had a partial external yolk (normally fully absorbed in the egg) meaning staff then had to massage the yolk through the chick's navel before the muscles clenched. "Staff only had a few minutes to perform this task otherwise the Kiwi could have died" says Tara.

Alyssa Salton, a senior Native Fauna Keeper, had the task of hatching the chick: "This was an interesting learning experience as we were under pressure and had a very short time frame to get things done correctly. Everything went well and we now have a very cute Kiwi chick that we closely monitor. It is obviously a fighter as it has struggled since it was an egg."

The parent birds, Riri (4) and Dearheart (5), arrived at Orana in 2006. They have produced five eggs over the past year with only the one egg being fertile. Riri and Dearheart are the first viable pair Orana has held for some time and staff expect more healthy eggs in the future.

Orana previously held mixed provenance Kiwi meaning those birds could not breed. The Department of Conservation genetically tested all captive Kiwi and separated them into provenance groups and then re-located those birds to the wild in predator free sites where Kiwi have not lived for hundreds of years. This created spaces in captivity for pairs such as Riri and Dearheart (which are North Island Brown Kiwi, Bay of Plenty Provenance).

Kiwi are under constant treat, particularly from introduced mammals as well as habitat loss. People can help by keeping their dogs on a leash and neutering pets.

"We are so privileged to work with Kiwi and having a chick for the first time in almost a decade is a very special for our team. We learnt a great deal through this difficult hatching and look forward to watching this little bird develop and hopefully having many more Kiwi chicks hatch at Orana in years to come" concludes Tara. The Kiwi chick is housed in the Park's Conservation Centre and so at this point is not on public display to allow the chick to develop.