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Save Kiwi Month the GREAT KIWI

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Save Kiwi Month the GREAT KIWI Save Kiwi Month THE GREAT KIWI... QUIZ If you want to add an activity to your Great Kiwi Morning Tea, you could do a quiz. We’ve even put one together for you. Get those thinking caps on and have fun! 1. Use the letters in the following phrase to find four threats to kiwi: MOSS GUARDS COSTS TO PASS 2. Tokoeka is a species of kiwi found in Fiordland, the Haast Range and Rakiura (Stewart Island). The name tokoeka comes from the Māori meaning what? 3. Name three types of habitat that kiwi could live in. 4. Which are bigger, male or female kiwi? 5. New Zealand has many species of native birds, but only two native mammals, which are both types of what? 6. If an area has 10 pairs of kiwi in it, each of which can lay four eggs a year, but only 5% of the chicks from those eggs survive, how many surviving chicks would those 10 pairs of kiwi have after five years? (Don’t include calculations of the chicks having chicks!) 7. In Kuwi’s Huhu Hunt, the second book featuring Kuwi the kiwi, Kuwi goes looking for food to feed her fussy chick. She tries all sorts of grubs and plants. Kiwi eat both. What’s the name for an animal that eats both meat and plant-based food? 8. Can you name four native New Zealand birds (apart from kiwi) whose names begin with K? Māori names can definitely be included. 9. How long does it take for a kiwi to incubate its eggs? 30, 50 or 70 days? 10. How many species of kiwi are there? Can you name them all? ANSWERS 1. Stoats - the number one killer of kiwi chicks. Dogs - the number one killer of adult kiwi - it’s essential to keep dogs under control in kiwi areas. Cars - another big threat to kiwi. Please drive carefully in kiwi areas. Possums - they have been known to take kiwi eggs and chicks and can also devastate the forest, which affects a kiwi’s food supply. 2. Weka with a walking stick (referring to the kiwi’s long beak). 3. Kiwi are quite versatile and can live in most types of habitat. These include lowland, in coastal native forest, flax, mixed scrub and sand dunes; Sub-alpine forested areas up to 1500 metres – tussock grasslands, beech forests, podocarp forests, scrub. Kiwi can even dig burrows in the snow; pine forests; and rough farmland. 4. Female kiwi. They’re generally 20 - 30% heavier than their male counterparts. 5. Bat. The long-tailed bat and the lesser short-tailed bat. We did have another species - the greater short-tailed bat, but this is now thought to be extinct. It’s quite ironic that our most famous native bird, the kiwi, can’t fly and our only native mammals can! 6. 10. This is quite a simplistic calculation, but is used for illustration. Only 5% of kiwi chicks survive to breeding age in areas that aren’t under predator control. In contrast, around 65% survive where predator control is in place. That means that using these calculations, the 10 pairs of kiwi would have had 130 surviving chicks in a predator controlled area, which is a considerable difference! 7. An omnivore. Carnivores eat just meat and herbivores eat just plants. 8. There are lots! Kākā, kākāpō, kea, kōtare (or kingfisher), kereru (New Zealand pigeon, also known as kūkū and kūkupa), kōkako, korimako (bellbird), kārearea (New Zealand falcon), kākāriki (New Zealand parakeet), kōtuku (white heron) as well as some less well- known ones: kāmana (Australasian crested grebe), kakī (black stilt), Kaikōura tītī (Hutton’s shearwater), koitareke (marsh crake). 9. About 70 days. 10. There are five species of kiwi: brown kiwi, great spotted kiwi, little spotted kiwi, tokoeka and rowi. www.kiwisforkiwi.org [email protected] (09) 307 4878 Registered Charity #CC47976.
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