Stroppy rare kiwi on the mend say delighted zookeepers

Manukura is among the rarest of birds. And she appears to have regained her mojo after a heart scare during surgery on Friday to remove a stone from her gizzard.

“You try to grab her and she kind of karate chops you,” said veterinarian Lisa Argilla, at the Wellington Zoo, where Manukura is recuperating.

“She growls and she grumbles and she’s getting really stroppy. So that’s great, that’s normal kiwi behaviour, and we love it when our patients do that.”

Kiwi are nocturnal birds native to New Zealand but have been almost wiped out by predators introduced to the country by European settlers.

Most are brown but white kiwi, which lack a colour gene, have been sighted in the wild. Manukura is the first born in captivity.

When she was born on May 1, native Maori leaders took it as an omen. Her Maori name means “of chiefly status” and some believe her arrival heralds a new beginning.

“The elders here believe it to be something very, very special,” said Jason Kerehi, the chief executive of the Rangitane o Wairarapa tribe and a board member at the Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre where the chick was born. “She is an inspiration to all people.”

Although a little underweight, Manukura developed normally enough until about two weeks ago, when rangers noticed she was not eating, and an X-ray revealed she had swallowed two stones. It is not unusual for birds to eat stones to help with digestion, but Manukura only managed to pass one naturally.

So she was taken to the Wellington Hospital, where a urologist was able to zap the stone with a laser.