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More About Kiwis ...
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A kiwi is any of the species of small flightless birds native to New Zealand of the genus Apteryx (the only genus in family Apterygidae). At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites. Though they are thought to be most closely related to either cassowaries or moa, their evolutionary origin is still uncertain. Several kiwi species are endangered.
Prior to the arrival of humans in about 1300, New Zealand had no mammals, and the ecological niches that in other parts of the world were filled by creatures as diverse as horses, wolves and mice were taken up by birds (and, to a lesser extent, reptiles).
Kiwi are shy, nocturnal creatures with a highly developed sense of smell and, most unusually in a bird, nostrils at the end of their long, sharp bill. They feed by thrusting the bill into the ground in search of worms, insects, and other invertebrates; though they also take fruit and, if the opportunity arises, small crayfish, amphibians and eels.
Their adaptation to a terrestrial life is extensive: like all ratites they have no keel on the breastbone to anchor wing muscles, and barely any wings either: the vestiges are so small that they are invisible under the kiwi's bristly, hair-like, two-branched feathers. While birds generally have hollow bones to save weight and make flight practicable, kiwi have marrow, in the style of mammals. With no constraints on weight from flight requirments, some Brown Kiwi females carry and lay a single 450 gram egg.
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Taxonmony
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Phylum: chordata
Class: aves
Order: Struthioniformes
Family: Apterygidae
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Source: Wikipedia Read more about Kiwis
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AUDIO CLIPS
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Little Spotted Kiwi
0.037MB MP3 Hear Sound
Kiwi Wildlife Tours
Little Spotted Kiwi
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Kiwi
0.036MB RA Hear Sound
Terra Nature
Hear the call of the North Island brown kiwi
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Little Spotted Kiwi
0.157MB WMA Hear Sound
David Antony Clark
Little Spotted Kiwi call
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Stewart Island Kiwi
0.371MB MP3 Hear Sound
McPherson Natural History Unit Sound Archive
Stewart Island Kiwi call
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