Watch out for Kiwis on the road

Posted by Aaron Schmidt (Auckland, New Zealand) on 12 January 2006 in Plant & Nature.

Kiwis are flightless, tailless birds that roam the NZ forests. Kiwis are completely nocturnal so seeing one (let alone, hitting one) on the road in broad daytime is a fairly uncommon event. Aurelie and I have only ever seen one in a museum in the dark behind glass.

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Comments (11)

Jane from France

This sign is hilarious!
The challenge before you is clear: you should go on a quest for a kiwi sighting. You have to bring back a feather as proof.

12 Jan 2006 8:20am

Hervé from Paris, France

Or a picture ! :)
You will need some comando night vision googles and other gadgets like a laser aiming lens !

12 Jan 2006 9:00am

Kerstin from Paris, France

This is funny! Does this panel mean: "Danger, Kiwis may cross the road" ? This is a real danger ;-)

12 Jan 2006 9:36am

Nadege from Issy les moulineaux, France

I think it's more : be carefull don't walk on kiwi, open your eyes.

12 Jan 2006 11:50am

Jason Kravitz from Atlanta, United States

ha - I didn't realize that is what a kiwi was - you do need to get us a photo.

12 Jan 2006 1:14pm

Shuva from Hyderabad, India

Why do Kiwi's walk on road? We should not post our opinions without first understanding the answer to this question.

12 Jan 2006 2:26pm

Aurélie from Auckland, New Zealand

The 'Kiwi' subject is actually very serious here as they are in danger of extinction. If nothing is done, they say that they will be extinct within 15 years!

They used to populate the whole territory of NZ ... until we started to introduce predators like cats and possoms. Now they are in just a few regions. 95% of the babies do not survive the predators ... it is huge! It is very sad.

They live at night so it is indeed very rare to see them during the day. To sensibilise the population of the possible extinction, lots of funds are organised and some organisations are hand-rearing kiwis until they are strong enough to be released in the wild.

12 Jan 2006 10:51pm