The two new chicks come just a year after the Capital Kiwi Project reintroduced the country’s iconic national bird to the city of around 400,000 people. The brown kiwi is one of New Zealand’s most common kiwi species, but according to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, the birds could be extinct in the wild within two generations without adequate conservation and support. Another 18 brown kiwi chicks are expected to hatch as part of the Capital Kiwi Project, which hopes to restore a large-scale wild population of kiwi to New Zealand’s capital. 95% of wild born kiwi in New Zealand are killed before they reach adulthood, according to Save the Kiwi. Where they get hammered is stoats eating the chicks before they get up to their fighting weight,” Capital Kiwi Project team leader Paul Ward told CNN earlier this year.

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Persons: Paul Ward, Ward Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Capital Kiwi Project, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, Capital Kiwi, Kiwi, New Zealand Department of Conservation, ”, Kiwi Project, CNN Locations: Hong Kong, Wellington, New Zealand, Makara, Wellington’s, Zealand