Kiwi are flightless, nocturnal birds endemic to New Zealand that face extinction from introduced mammalian predators. Their welfare depends on intensive predator management and community conservation.
Kiwi welfare is acutely threatened by predation from introduced mammals that evolved alongside no native ground-dwelling birds. Stoat attacks are particularly devastating — stoats kill kiwi rapidly and are efficient predators of eggs, chicks, and adults. The welfare of individual kiwi caught by predators involves acute trauma and rapid death when a stoat attack is efficient, or slower death from injuries when it is not. Chicks face predation risk continuously during their first years. Kiwi whose long-term mates are killed show behavioural disruption consistent with grief. Conservation requires landscape-scale predator control — 1080 operations and trapping networks — combined with captive rearing programs. Community involvement in predator trapping on private land is essential to the national recovery effort.