kiwi
The biggest threat to kiwi chicks is stoats, while dogs are the biggest threat to adult kiwi. Stoats are responsible for approximately half of kiwi chick deaths in many areas through New Zealand. Kiwi are being driven to extinction by three main threats: predators, lost habitat, and fragmented kiwi populations. Kiwi have few defences against introduced predators like stoats and ferrets, and their native forest habitat has been dramatically reduced to make way for human habitation and farmland.
Fun Facts
1.Kiwi cannot fly! Due to their small wings and underdeveloped breast bone.
2.Compared to the size of kiwi, their eggs are huge! A kiwi egg is approximately 20% of the female’s body size.
3.The males actually sit on the egg until it hatches! Once the female kiwi lays her egg, the male takes over so the female can forage for food.
Because the egg has taken up so much room in her body, her stomach has shrunken so much that she desperately needs to replenish herself.
