First kiwi ever hatched in Dutch zoo

The Avifauna bird park proudly welcomed a new resident. A baby kiwi recently hatched at the zoo. This is the first time ever that a kiwi is born in the Netherlands. Only 16 zoos around the world have a breeding program for kiwis. And Avifauna in Alphen aan den Rijn is the only zoo where a kiwi hatched this year, the zoo announced on Thursday.

Kiwis are the smallest flightless bird species in the world. There are an estimated 60 thousand of these birds left in the wild. They originally only occurred in New Zealand. The incubation period for a kiwi egg is around 80 days. Fun fact: the kiwi's brown, hairy, ovoid shape is the reason the bird shares a name with the kiwi fruit.

The baby kiwi will be given a Maori name, in honor of New Zealand's original inhabitants. Avifauna also annually sends kiwi feathers back to New Zealand, which the Maori use in their rituals, according to the zoo.

From Saturday the baby kiwi will be publicly weighed and measured for a few weeks.