As New Zealand’s oldest nature reserve, Hauturu is home to a genetically diverse population of kiwi-nui / North Island brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli). The 2025 kiwi monitoring survey, carried out from 19–24 June, marks the island’s tenth participation in the national kiwi call count monitoring scheme since 1993. Monitoring kiwi numbers involves recording their distinctive calls over fixed periods during the breeding season. There are six established monitoring sites, each representing different terrains and habitats. Weather conditions were mostly favourable, although wind and sea noise at some exposed sites affected detection accuracy of distant and female calls. Pleasingly, kiwi call counts were significantly higher in 2025 than in 2024. The average call rate rose to 6.2 per hour from just 3.59 in the previous year. All six sites reported increases alleviating some earlier concern of a population decline. The survey also trialled remote acoustic monitoring devices, which allowed continuous 12-hour recordings. Data from these recordings is still being processed and will help inform how we monitor the kiwi-nui population going forwards. A big than you to our kiwi count volunteers Many thanks to the 11 enthusiastic and hardworking people who answered our call for volunteers – all at their own expense. In addition to six nights of kiwi call monitoring, they also gave ranger Richard a hand with various maintenance tasks, including removing an old water pipeline and installing a new one, vegetation clearing and track maintenance, and a massive shed clear out and tidy up. All up they put in a total of nearly 1700 person hours of kiwi monitoring and island maintenance work! The Hauturu Supporters Trust acknowledges and appreciates their dedication, generosity and care shown by each member of the 2025 team, particularly Lesley Baigent who is leading the kiwi-nui monitoring mahi. The youngest team member Grace MacMahon shares her kiwi monitoring experience I was told, in the days before departing for Hauturu, that at first the island would seem similar to other islands in the Gulf, only that everything was bigger (including the hills). Stepping ashore and walking towards the bunkhouse, we passed through glades of kawakawa, a plant I had only known as a shrub, grown to the size of trees. Great stands of kauri have regrown near the ridges, towering over us and our track work. At night, as we sat listening for kiwi, huge wētā could be heard clicking and scratching in the forest around us. Working on volunteer tasks in the mornings, I found myself carefully watched by more kerurū than I had ever seen in one place, fluffy and so large you could hear them crashing through the understory as their perches broke beneath them. Around the bunkhouse, they would happily sit on the ground, feasting on grass seeds and looking for all the world like chickens. Returning from the morning work, one day, I walked past a dark shape on the bunkhouse lawn. The resident kerurū had become so normal to me that I hardly glanced at it — until it hopped. Seeing a kōkako up close for the first time was truly astonishing to me. There’s a certain reverence that I think they inspire in people concerned with the conservation of our ecosystems, something like looking at a resurrection of forests past. Imagine my gasp when another one appeared from around the corner of the house. Visiting and working on Hauturu for the first time was unforgettable in many ways, but it was the ecosystem that most profoundly affected me. Being able to help the island that gives refuge to these amazing species was an honour. Pixie cap orchid (Acianthus fornicatus) by Erin Forsyth. Joining the team for the first time was artist Erin Forsyth, who was inspired to illustrate several of her encounters, including this delightful pixie cap orchid.
