The NZ Herald reports today that a rowi kiwi bird (the actual feathered creature, not a girl from Auckland) called Cee Cee was found dead, knocked down by a car. The bird, aged 13, had the potential to live to 80 and sire 50 - 60 chicks, which would equate to about 15% of the entire population of this highly endangered variety of Kiwi.
Strange Kiwi-related facts:
As a bird's beak is measured from the tip to the nostrils, the Kiwi, despite it's apparently long beak, actually has the shortest beak in the world.
Also, the kiwi has the largest egg in relation to body size of any bird. As you can see from the skeleton here. Push!
And finally, the hairy fruit is named after the bird. Previous to an aggressive 1950's marketing campaign, they were known as Chinese gooseberries, however this name was dropped admid Cold War distrust of Maoist China. Funnily enough, most of the kiwis that we eat in Ireland are in fact, grown in Italy.
