Overview

• Grainy mobile footage from hunter Luke Hill prompted a Department of Conservation expedition to the remote Adams Wilderness Area after decades without a mainland sighting.
• DOC ranger Iain Graham and his detection dog Brew collected feathers for DNA confirmation and later captured a male to join the already secured female.
• Both kiwi pukupuku have been fitted with tracking transmitters to record their movements and identify critical habitats on the mainland.
• The discovery overturns the assumption that little spotted kiwi were confined to offshore predator-free sanctuaries and suggests a surviving mainland population.
• Estimated at around 2,000 birds, the mainland population will be managed through a new partnership between the Department of Conservation and local Māori communities.