the North Island brown Kiwi may soon become a bird of the past. A field study conducted by John Mclennan, a scientist of Landcare research, Auckland, suggests that merely five per cent of the Kiwi chicks born every year survive until adulthood. The recent findings suggest that unless 20 per cent chicks live to adulthood, the population will continue to decline.

The population of Kiwis has gone down from about 70,000 to 30,000 in the last 15 years. Increased poaching and habitat loss have also posed serious threats to the bird. Even the funding to ensure Kiwi's survival is not sufficient, says Mclennan.