The Kiwi — New Zealands´ Famous Animal

Every country has its national animal. For New Zealand it is the kiwi, the smallest non-flying bird in the world. It seems to be quite important in New Zealand, since it is not only depicted on a postage stamp, but is also used as a nickname for the New Zealand dollar. Even more striking is that residents call themselves Kiwis. Imagine this were true for Germans as well… It would be rather strange, if we referred to ourselves as eagles though… don´t you think? So to me this just emphasizes how important the kiwi is to New Zealanders. To be honest I actually had to google which animal was Germanys´ national animal because I never wasted much thought on it. Of course after I had this typical “ahhh of course, I knew that” kind of feeling.

Very interesting is that kiwis do not fly. Not because it is so unusual that birds cannot fly, but because there is a tale or legend told by the Maori people, which explains how the Kiwi lost its´ wings:

“Why the Kiwi Lost its Wings” from the Maori people of New Zealand.

Long ago in the deep forests, the Kiwi could fly as well as any bird. Mighty Tane (pronounced tawn-ay), father-god of the forest, ruled the land. All was well until one summer when insects swarmed through the forest, eating every leaf and blade of grass.

So Tane called all the birds together and asked them for help. “Some of you must give up your life in the bright sunny treetops and live on the forest floor. Someone must eat all the creeping things that are killing our forest.”

First Tane turned to Kea (pronounced kee-uh) the parrot. [Sound of Kea] But the parrot looked the other way and said, “My beautiful feathers would not show if I lived in the dark shadows.”

Tane turned to Morepork the owl. [Call of Morepork Owl] But the owl hung her head and said, “I like to sleep high in the trees where it’s safe.”

Finally Tane spoke to beautiful Kiwi. “Will you do this for me?” Because Kiwi loved the forest even more than his own life in the treetops, he agreed. As Kiwi descended to the forest floor, his wings became useless, but his legs grew strong for running. His beautiful feathers fell out, as he turned grey as a shadow. And he began to eat insects with his long bill.
Tane smiled and proclaimed: “You will become a symbol of this land, and the people will be proud to take your name.”

(http://birdnote.org/show/myth-kiwi)

The kiwi is a treasure to Maori, who have strong cultural, spiritual and historic associations with it. Its feathers are valued and people of high rank wear kiwi feather cloaks. The bird is not only cherished by the Maori but by all cultures in New Zealand. Kiwis are a symbol for the uniqueness of New Zealands´ wildlife.

Unfortunately there are only about 68,000 kiwi left in all of New Zealand and 2% of their unmanaged kiwis are lost every year (that’s around 20 per week). In other words: All kiwi species are threatened with extinction. Thereby humans pose the greatest threat in form of deforestation and because they brought predators such as the dog to New Zealand. On the other hand humans are probably the only hope the kiwi has. There are many kiwi conservation groups that people can join. Let´s hope, that New Zealand will take kiwi from endangered to everywhere.