Kiwi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi

Kiwi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kiwi (pronounced /kiwi/) or kiwis are flightless birds native to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family
Apterygidae. At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites (which also
consist of ostriches, emus, rheas, and cassowaries), and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any
species of bird in the world.[3] DNA sequence comparisons have yielded the surprising conclusion that kiwi are
much more closely related to the extinct Malagasy elephant birds than to the moa with which they shared New
Zealand.[4] There are five recognised species, two of which are currently vulnerable, one of which is
endangered, and one of which is critically endangered. All species have been negatively affected by historic
deforestation but currently the remaining large areas of their forest habitat are well protected in reserves and
national parks. At present, the greatest threat to their survival is predation by invasive mammalian predators.
The kiwi is a national symbol of New Zealand, and the association is so strong that the term Kiwi is used
internationally as the colloquial demonym for New Zealanders.[5]

Etymology
The Mori language word kiwi (/kiwi/ KEE-wee)[6] is generally accepted to be "of imitative origin" from the
call.[7] However, some linguists derive the word from Proto-Nuclear Polynesian *kiwi, which refers to Numenius
tahitiensis, the bristle-thighed curlew, a migratory bird that winters in the tropical Pacific islands.[8] With its long
decurved bill and brown body, the curlew resembles the kiwi. So when the first Polynesian settlers arrived, they
may have applied the word kiwi to the new-found bird.[9] The genus name Apteryx is derived from Ancient
Greek "without wing": a-, "without" or "not"; pterux, "wing".[10]

Taxonomy and systematics

Although it was long presumed that the kiwi was closely related to the other New Zealand ratites, the moa,
recent DNA studies have identified its closest relative as the extinct elephant bird of Madagascar,[4][11] and
among extant ratites, the kiwi is more closely related to the emu and the cassowaries than to the moa.[4][12]
Research published in 2013 on an extinct genus, Proapteryx, known from the Miocene deposits of the Saint
Bathans Fauna, found that it was smaller and probably capable of flight, supporting the hypothesis that the
ancestor of the kiwi reached New Zealand independently from moas, which were already large and flightless by
the time kiwis appeared.[13]

Species
There are five known species of kiwi, as well as a number of subspecies.
A. haastii
A. owenii

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