The Kiwi

By Kayano

I am learning to inform my audience through an information report. 

What is brown, fuzzy and is special to New Zealand? No it's not a kiwifruit, it’s a kiwi bird. The Kiwi is one of the rarest flightless birds in New Zealand. The Kiwi is also a distant relative to the ostrich, the moa and the elephant bird from madagascar, although they are very different in size. There are five different species of kiwi which are the North Island Brown Kiwi, the Southern Brown Kiwi, the Little Spotted Kiwi, the Great Spotted Kiwi and also the Okarito Kiwi. That’s a lot of Kiwis. But in order to survive they need a healthy source of food.

Kiwis have a highly developed sense of smell which can be used for catching a lot of food and are the only bird with nostrils at the end of its very long beak. Kiwis are omnivores which means they eat both meat and plant. But Imagine eating small insects, seeds, grubs, leaves, and worms, fruit, small crayfish and even eels, these things are everything that a kiwi eats. But water? No kiwis don’t need a lot water, because roughly 85% of the food they eat is water. But a kiwis habitat is very important for its survival and source of food as well.

Luckily kiwi are very adaptable and live in a huge range of habitats, from forest and scrub to farmland, sand dunes and even mangroves. They especially like places with trees and running rivers with vegetation. Unfortunately the kiwis habitat is now infested with stoats, weasels and possums which are a threat to native New Zealand birds.

Weasels, dogs, stoats, possums, cats, ferrets and rats are all threats to kiwi. Yes kiwis are very endangered. There used to be more than twelve million but because predators eat so many chicks there are now fewer than one hundred thousand left.

Kiwis are full of miracles and it is lucky that we still have kiwis in New Zealand. It is our national icon and is important to our country. Kiwis are endangered and it is our job to protect them.