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National Kiwi Hatchery
National Kiwi Hatchery

$40

Raised

Donations

$500

Goal

Hi, I am Sarah (@SquirrelSarah) and I just got back from a trip to New Zealand which impressed me deeply with its fragile nature and the devastating influence humans had on this unique place. I was especially moved by New Zealand's National Kiwi Hatchery that works hard and honest on saving the fluffy, flightless birds from extinction. When I left the facility, the animals and the wonderful people, I felt like I wanted to do more than just visiting.


So I started this private donorbox. I will forward every dime to the National Kiwi Hatchery, top it up if necessary and in addition you can win an original 21,6 x 27,9 cm / 8,5 x 11 inch kiwi acrylic painting by me (which I ususally sell for 150 €). Winning the painting does not depend on the amount you are able to give - it will be a raffle and pure luck. Just leave me your name and/or Instagram name so I can identify the winner later.


This is what the painting looks like:


 

Here is what it is all about:

 

During our trip to New Zealans we were able to visit the National Kiwi Hatchery behind the scenes. They raise young chicks so they won't get eaten by all the human-introduced predators before they are strong enough to fight for themselves. We learned that the workers take on tremendous efforts to serach for kiwi's eggs in dense forests, put them in insulated boxes, bring them to the Hatchery and incubate them there. Here it takes about 78 days for a kiwi to hatch. 🐣 Then they receive medical check-ups and get food (we were able to see both ❤️). When they weigh more than 1 kg / 2 lbs they are released into the wild because then they are able to fend off all the hungry stoats and rats that people introduced to New Zealand and that nearly brought the native kiwi to extinction.


The lovely people at the Hatchery work hard and passionately to reverse what humankind did to those precious birds. I was so grateful we were able to visit. 100% of the tour fee we paid went back to the Hatchery. That's was when I felt I wanna do even more and started this donorbox.

 

Why are kiwi endangered?

 

Kiwi are nocturnal and only awake for round about 6 hours when it's dark. They live hidden in woods and even most New Zealanders have never seen one. Because of that kiwi don't see well but have exceptional hearing, smell a lot and... they have whiskers! 🐱 For thousands of years they lived safely without predators. Until humans brought rabbits to New Zealand so they could shoot something (no comment). Completely surprisingly the rabbit population went out of control. So humans brought critters like stoats to hunt the rabbits. Now stoats, opossums and rats eat kiwi eggs and young chicks.🤦‍♀️ Today New Zealand is losing 2% of unmanaged kiwi every year. Without places like the National Kiwi Hatchery these rare and beautiful flightless birds would vanish during our and/or our children's lifetime.

 

Maybe we can do some good together? I appreciate it if you read all this. If you can't donate, thank you for reading - maybe you can refer the project to someone else. ❤️


Sarah