A population of western brown kiwi is being re-established in Tongariro.
Conservation Minister Willow-Jean Prime says four kiwi chicks were gifted by Ngāti Hikairo ki Tongariro to Ngāti Korokī Kahukura 18 years ago, and became the first resident kiwi the Maungatautari mountain sanctuary in the Waikato.
Gifts from other iwi and hapū in the western North Island helped to bring the population in the sanctuary to over 2000 kiwi.
Nine kiwi were released on Friday into the 20,000-hectare Tongariro nature reserve, where the Department of Conservation manages an extensive predator control programme.
Another 60 birds set to join them in the coming weeks.
Minster Prime thanked Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari and Save the Kiwi for nurturing the kiwi population to the point where they can be gifted back to the places they came from.
Maungatautari is planning further large-scale releases to other sanctuaries.
