Rare North Island brown kiwi hatches at the Smithsonian's Na...( Early Friday morning March 7 one of ...)

Early Friday morning, March 7, one of the worlds most endangered speciesa North Island brown kiwihatched at the Smithsonians National Zoo Bird House. Keepers had been incubating the egg for five weeks, following a month long incubation by the chicks father, carefully monitoring it for signs of pipping: the process in which the chick starts to break through the shell. The chick remained in an isolet for four days and is now in a specially designed brooding box.

The box will be not be on exhibit, but will be accessible on Friday, March 14, by webcam on the Zoos Web site at http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Birds/Kiwi/default.cfm. Since kiwis are nocturnal, the best time to view the chick exploring and foraging in its box will be in the evening.

The sex of the chick is still unknown and is difficult to determine by sight. For this reason, Bird House staff enlisted the help of National Zoo geneticists. Using DNA samples swabbed from the inside of the egg and from the birds beak, the geneticists hope to decipher its sex in the coming weeks.

This is only the third time in the Zoos history that a kiwi has successfully hatched. The first hatching occurred in 1975 and was the first to occur outside of New Zealand. The National Zoo did not have another successful hatching until 2005; that male bird, Manaia, may currently be seen Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the 11 a.m. Meet a Kiwi program at the National Zoos Bird House. Kiwis in captivity are extremely rareonly four zoos outside of New Zealand have successfully bred kiwis, and only three U.S. zoos, including the National Zoo, exhibit them.

There are five species of kiwi and all are unique to New Zealand. The North Island brown species of kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand. They are widely thought to be the most ancient bird and have existed in New Zealand for more than 30 million years. Kiwis ty
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