By Juliet Speedy
A Christchurch wildlife park has announced the Christmas miracle birth of an avian, rather than virgin, kind.
It is the first time Orana Park has had a kiwi chick hatch and survive for almost a decade. But it took the hand of staff, moving in a mysterious way, to make it happen.
Weighing just 227g, it is thought to be the smallest Kiwi ever born in captivity. The staff have named it Piwi.
"It was a bit touch and go there for a while, but we're just so ecstatic to have this little fluffy ball of kiwi here now," says the park's Alyssa Salton.
They're calling Piwi the "miracle chick" because right from when the egg arrived, it was touch and go.
"We were very excited, but also the other half was saying okay, don't count your chickens yet," says Tara Atkinson.
They then found puncture holes in its shell, which required a bit of kiwi bird ingenuity - patching them up with nail polish.
"It is a used trick in the industry... Revlon, we need some sponsorship!" says Ms Atkinson.
In the end, the North Island brown kiwi had to have an assisted hatch, a very delicate operation the staff had never carried out before.
"It gave us concern that without our intervention he wasn't going to get himself out of the egg," says Ms Salton. She opened the shell and removed it herself.
"A new experience for me, and definitely a highlight. It's not every day you get to hatch a kiwi out."
It's very hard to describe how that feels, it's almost a little miracle because we had written this egg off at one point," says Ms Salton.
When they finally got it out the drama wasn't over; the team realised the bird hadn't absorbed all of its yolk sac, a life-threatening situation, so they had to rubit in through its navel themselves.
Piwi's weight is now down to 174g, but it started eating on its own yesterday, so staff are hoping its weight will start to rise.
"I'm really impressed, he's doing really well," says Ms Salton.
The little bird is the first successful kiwi hatching at the park in nearly a decade, and staff expect more healthy eggs in the future.
And as for Piwi's future, that will be decided once it has properly found its feet.
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