The little spotted kiwi (Apteryx owenii) survives today almost entirely on Kapiti Island, where a managed population descended from five birds translocated there in the early twentieth century now numbers in the hundreds. The mainland population was effectively extinct by the 1980s. Subsequent reintroduction efforts, including transfers to Zealandia sanctuary in Wellington, have proceeded cautiously — this is a species that came within a single catastrophic event of total loss.
The little spotted kiwi (Apteryx owenii) survives today almost entirely on Kapiti Island, where a managed population descended from five birds translocated there in the early twentieth century now numbers in the hundreds. The mainland population was effectively extinct by the 1980s. Subsequent reintroduction efforts, including transfers to Zealandia sanctuary in Wellington, have proceeded cautiously — this is a species that came within a single catastrophic event of total loss.