Friday, November 02, 2007

Happenings in the Rowi Sanctuary

Hi everyone,

The rowi team here in Franz Josef are very excited. We already have 8 chicks and 9 eggs waiting to hatch at Willowbank. There are another 8 eggs still out in the forest to collect when they reach 30 days. When all the eggs at Willowbank hatch, we will have the same number of chicks we got last year.. and it's only half way through breeding season!


















Here is Iain with the first egg lifted this season. This egg has now hatched at Willowbank and is getting very fat eating worms, we are calling him "Aotea". He weighed 303.8g when he hatched a month ago, how much do you think he weighs now?
















This little chick hatched in the forest, we could not reach the egg. When they hatch we can catch them coming out to feed, we bring them back to Franz Josef and give them fat juicy worms. Soon this chick will be going up to Motuara Island with it's friends.

Questions for the kiwi workers from Ms Julies class in Japan

Aya asked: When you catch the stoats do you kill them?

Jo answered:
The stoat trap is like a big mouse trap that kills the stoat immediately.
It is put in the wooden tunnel to stop other animals and birds from being caught.
Stoats like narrow tunnels and are thin enough to squeeze into the tunnels narrow entrance. There is bait like an egg or piece of rabbit meat to attract the stoat into the tunnel.

Aya and Ms Julie replied: Thanks Jo and Liz for your updates, that was very exciting news! Do you have any more photos of stoats to post?
This week in class we wrote letters to conservation organisations here in Japan asking them how can we help?