As water gushed into his enclosure on Sunday night, Matt the kiwi raced to save his egg from the flood.

The North Island brown kiwi has been incubating an egg at Christchurch's Willowbank Wildlife Reserve for the past two weeks, assisted by partner Kamo.

When Willowbank keeper Jemma Martin waded through the floodwaters in his enclosure on Monday she found the kiwi sitting on the egg above water level.

He was surrounded by floodwater from the torrential downpour on Sunday and had spent the night gathering leaves to place under the egg to raise it up.

Martin and fellow keeper Blair Chapman dug a channel to drain the water out of the enclosure.

They dried dead leaves in an oven so that Matt would have enough in his enclosure to pad his nest further.

After 30 days of natural incubation, the egg will be taken from the nest and staff will incubate it in the breeding centre.

Staff hope this will stimulate Kamo to lay another egg.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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