National Kiwi Hatchery Aotearoa

About

Te Paonga Kiwi o Aotearoa.

Mission

The National Kiwi Hatchery has a very simple mission - hatch more kiwi to save the species!

Impressum

The National Kiwi Hatchery Aotearoa incubates kiwi eggs and hatches kiwi chicks to save our national bird. Kiwi eggs get eaten by predators in the wild. Out of every 100 kiwi eggs laid in burrows in the forest, only five kiwi chicks will make it to adulthood. By hatching the kiwi eggs in safety at the National Kiwi Hatchery we have a 98% survival rate. The National Kiwi Hatchery Aotearoa plays a vital role in saving kiwi.
The National Kiwi Hatchery Aotearoa works with conservation groups who find and collect kiwi eggs from 15 different forests and brings the eggs to our facility in Rotorua. Our team of experts incubate the eggs and we hatch kiwi chicks! We have hatched over 1800 kiwi eggs since we began (we’re pretty good at it now!).
We are the global experts in hatching kiwi chicks. We hatch 130 kiwi chicks each year - two-thirds of all chicks incubated and hatched in New Zealand. We see each chick as a taonga (treasure). Every chick we hatch is vitally important in the battle for the survival of the species.