Fast Facts about New Zealand Kiwi

• Kiwi have a strong musky smell that is irresistible to dogs
• Little spotted kiwi and North Island.brown kiwi breed in pairs and only the male incubates the egg
• The kiwi egg is six times as big as normal for a bird its size, almost exactly the size of eggs produced by the now-extinct bush moa
• Kiwi have one of the largest egg-to-body weight ratios of any bird. A mature kiwi egg averages 20 percent of the female’s body weight (compared to 2 percent for an ostrich). In human terms this would mean a 50 kilogram woman delivering a 10 kilogram baby!
• A female kiwi can lay up to 100 eggs in her lifetime

Kiwi chicks are born fully feathered mini adults and can live for up to 30-40 years.

The average incubation time is 70-80 days, more than twice what is normal for a bird and about the same as the gestation period of a similar sized mammal.