Kiwi are flightless birds whose survival depends on intensive predator management, with individual kiwi welfare directly tied to the success of trapping and eradication programs targeting introduced predators.
Kiwi welfare is inseparable from predator management — a kiwi killed by a stoat experiences the acute welfare cost of predation, while kiwi living in predator-managed areas live the full natural lives their evolution shaped them for. Operation Nest Egg chicks experience captivity welfare costs during rearing, but these are short-term compared to the lifetime welfare benefit of survival in a less predator-pressured environment. The collective effort of thousands of New Zealanders maintaining trap networks to protect individual kiwi represents one of the largest community-driven wildlife welfare programs in the world.