Mt Bruce hatches new kiwi watch programme

MIKE HEYDON

SCRATCH PATCH: Seeing a kiwi is said to be the must-do experience for visitors to Mt Bruce Wildlife Centre, near Masterton.

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The little brown kiwi is about to be thrust into the public glare with another big facelift at Mt Bruce Wildlife Centre.

The sprawling forest block north of Masterton, home to some of New Zealand's most endangered species, has been radically changed in the past two years.

The latest development, announced this week, includes a planned $1.5 million upgrade and expansion of the centre's nocturnal house. Twenty-year-old flood-prone kiwi enclosures are to be overhauled and renovated and the centre's Operation Nest Egg programme is to be shifted from its spot out of the public eye to the new kiwi house.

For the first time, visitors to the centre will be able to watch kiwi eggs hatching.

Next April, 30 kiwi from Little Barrier Island will be relocated to Mt Bruce – doubling the kiwi population in the forest. The project is the second stage of an overall upgrade. A year ago the colours, sights and sounds of an ancient forest were recreated indoors as part of a $1.4m redevelopment of the visitor centre.

Pukaha Mt Bruce Board chairman Bob Francis said visitors "tell us seeing a kiwi is the must do" at the centre. "We believe we are the only reserve where kiwi are on view to the public and where they are released back into their own environment – our own 940 hectares of forest."

Masterton and Tararua district councils have already pledged financial support for the project. Mr Francis said dependent on the success of other funding applications, work on stage two was expected to begin in April.

The centre has had many triumphs and setbacks since the arrival of takahe in the 1950s.

The Campbell Island teal now thrives back in its home territory and populations of little spotted kiwi, North Island robin and shore plover have been established again. Last year four little brown kiwi were killed by invading ferrets.

- © Fairfax NZ News