11/29/22 Kiwi

"Two wild kiwi chicks were born near Wellington, New Zealand, about a year after a reintroduction program began in the city, the Capital Kiwi Project announced last week. The fluffy, brown babies are the first to be born near the country’s capital in at least 150 years. 

“This is very special for the team, which has been working hard for the last few years,” project founder Paul Ward tells the Agence France-Presse. The chicks are a “massive milestone for our goal of building a wild population of kiwi on Wellington’s back doorstep.”

These flightless, chicken-sized birds were once abundant across New Zealand, with the nation’s five species numbering an estimated 12 million individuals in total. But nonnative predators and habitat loss caused their populations to plummet. Today, approximately 68,000 kiwis remain....

Conservation and reintroduction programs, including the Capital Kiwi Project, have been working to restore a large-scale wild kiwi population for years. In 2022, the organization released 11 kiwis into the wild in Makara, a suburb about seven miles west of Wellington. Between February and May of 2023, another 52 birds were released, and 200 more are slated to be released over the next five years, reports Eva Corlett for the Guardian.

Along with reintroduction efforts, the project aimed to reduce threats from European stoats, also known as ermines. The mammals were brought to New Zealand in the 19th century in an attempt to eradicate another introduced creature: rabbits. But these weasel-like stoats are voracious predators and kill many of New Zealand’s native species, including kiwi chicks. Only about 5 percent of kiwi chicks survive to reach breeding age in areas where predators are not controlled, largely thanks to stoats. In areas under management, however, 50 to 60 percent survive. Knowing this, conservationists worked with 100 landowners across the bird’s 60,000-acre habitat to install 4,600 stoat traps.

Of the 63 adult kiwis now roaming the hilly farmlands of Makara, only about a quarter are being monitored—meaning more chicks will likely hatch in the near future. Conservationists will continue monitoring the two new chicks, though Ward tells the Guardian they still have a long way to go before they’re fully grown...

Over the years, the long-beaked birds have become a national symbol of New Zealand, with people who hail from the country often referred to as kiwis. The animals also hold special importance to the Māori people of New Zealand, who have cultural, spiritual and historic associations with the birds. Even the New Zealand dollar is sometimes referred to as the kiwi, and the bird is featured on the country’s dollar coin."

-via Smithsonian Magazine, December 6, 2023

Not fandom related but the Miami Zoo currently has one of my country’s national birds which they’re MISTREATING.

We’d like it back now luv x

If it was a bald eagle, y’all would be rioting in the streets.

Well? Have you?

hey lil bro are you good

So this morning a staffmate told me about the recent Miami Zoo Kiwi incident that’s come to light, and I’ve been fucking livid all day.

Just been reading through a bunch of articles (majority NZ news sources) and the Zoo’s official statement, and somehow it’s even worse than what my irate coworker was able to convey to me. Miami Zoo had the absolute fucking privilege of receiving a (North Isl. Brown (?)) kiwi egg to hatch and raise as a species you would never normally see outside our little island at the bottom of the world as part of a some global zoo wildlife initiative.

Brief brief summary: viral videos coming out of this kiwi (Paora) being put on a table and patted by paying customers under bright lights, having selfies taken, made to run around during the day, keeper pursuing him whenever he tried to hide in his box. All around blasé attitude from keeper talking about this bird while he’s being paraded about on display. There’s video footage but I could seriously only stomach watching it once. He’s been there for 4 years and in the wake of this outrage they’re claiming to be building him a ‘proper enclosure’ now. He’s been handled like this at least 4 times a week and his current enclosure has been 3x3m.

They had access to super fucking detailed information on how to take care of this very sensitive and specialized animal, and what the fuck do they do? Disregard ALL of it to sell cutesy, ~rare bird~, self-obsessed animal encounters.

Either you knowingly and intentionally went against SO. MUCH. vital animal husbandry or you are just such a fuckwit you legitimately think it was good animal handling, I don’t know which is worse honestly. If it’s the former, congratulations; American Capitalism continues to be the most nasty, disrespectful piece of shit I see regularly parading about in broad daylight. If it’s the latter, then are your staff for real just exotic pet-obsessed freaks who showed up one day in a uniform and you just went ‘yeah sure you can be a zookeeper good enough’. Shoutout to that ‘keeper’ who had Paora’s head pinned to the fucking table with his fist going ‘hohoh yeah he’s just like a dog he loves being pat on the head’ yeah sure thing idiot I bet your zookeeper degree taught you all animals and birds especially just love being slapped around and treated like dogs.

The thing that’s got me the most though, is how over the top and pitiful they are being in their apology; “we’ve offended a nation...”, “it should have never happened”, “we are so sorry this video has caused stress to people”, ok yeah but fuck what we think why is there exactly ZERO mention of the stress, harm and sheer exploitation you have put this animal through??? Like yes, Paora is a taonga species and that is certainly adding to the severity of this response, but in and of itself the fact that their official statement answers ONLY to humans’ responses and outrage and not the failure to care for this animal is telling as fuck to me.

I really liked reading iwi leader Paora Haitana’s response (who Paora the kiwi is named after), in much nicer words than me expressing deep concern over the harm to Paora, the disrespect it is to him as a taonga species and us as protectors of them, and also heavy, heavy emphasis on words holding no shape under the weight of everything that has happened; they need to follow through and follow through right now with adequate care.

Personally I’d like to see Paora moved to a zoo that actually cares about his needs and conservation education over selling clickbait. I feel the love and intention of bringing him home to Aotearoa, though I don’t know how realistic that is with the risk of introducing diseases from abroad into the NZ populations. I also would expect a thorough investigation of Zoo Miami’s husbandry for all their species and the credentials of their staff.

Thanks for coming along to rant o’ clock, I’ll be back to reblogging regular fandom shit now so please don’t follow me if you’re expecting more of my own content lol. Enjoy some great twitter banter from this mess

some more oc art wooooooooー☆

Zephyrus, Icarus, Abaddon

ROUND 1: MATCH 8

Forgot to post this -- a late Xmas gift for @pressed-possum featuring their Sucralite-sona, Kiwi, hanging out with Needle and Jackal :3 they're gushing about videogames, I reckon!

Process video below:

I saw a Post once Somewhere that said to combine your first Fixation and your Current one into a Horrible Travesty. Well. I Did It. You're Welcome Internet. 👍

SCREAMINGGG I SAW A LITTLE BLUEBIRD TODAY SHE WAS SO CUTE AND PRETTY AND BRIGHT

see the thing about anthy being one of the like Two brown characters in rgu and being a sex slave and being reduced as an object for the (pale skinned coughs) main character to Win and Keep and Own is like.

i am fully aware that sometimes stories set up circumstances like these to commentate on them. however. the fact that rgu gets blindly praised for utena and anthy’s relationship and the fact that its fans are completely fucking unaware of any kind of commentary regarding sex slavery and an ethnic superiority complex and the fact that its fans get angry when people bring these things up is a pretty clear indication that the story makes no effort to commentate on or condemn these topics whatsoever. y’all would not be blindsided by people saying they’re uncomfortable with rgu for these reasons if the text truly and honestly handled them the way it should have. but no - it’s just yet another case of fetishization and no one has enough critical thinking skills to recognize when they’re being spoon-fed absolute horseshit

Sorry I can’t get into Goncharov I’m busy thinking about a black panther that’s so full of Autism

Call for NZ experts to help care for Paora the kiwi after US zoo sparks ...

Zoo Miami fucked around and found out. They mistreated an endangered bird, a kiwi, a taonga of Aotearoa New Zealand, entrusted into their care, thus enraging an entire nation. Their apology doesn’t sound sincere, they did not take Paora’s welfare seriously, nor do they seem capable of doing so. This zoo needs to be investigated to see what other abuses are occurring there.

Since Blind Man’s Bluff is gonna have more focus on the worldbuilding aspect of Whistlegrimm, I’ve been playing around with original fauna ideas for it. These are just kinda concepts and really janky ones at that. I can safely say that at least one of these species has an important role in one of the character’s backstories.

Ignore any convoluted statements in the bios I wrote them on a whim and then realized how dumb the Godmother bio is.

Credit to @barnowlblu for the idea for Inchwyrms!

Ok I saw this on Pinterest and immediately thought of you so here you go.

I hope the link work😅

https://pin.it/4CiKXR3

Ooohhh i love this one!!

The size of kiwi birbs depends on the species, but yeah theyre decently big!