Hello, who knows the reason why kiwi's are pretty rare in zoos? Is it their diet, bad reproductive system, or are they very stressy? Hope someone can help.
I think it’s mainly the fact that their pretty strict nocturnal behaviour does not make them great display animals...
Kiwi are easy to feed. They can be bred pretty easily when kept off-display, but they get stressed easily by noise (i.e. on public display) and so rarely breed when on display. Few individuals make good display birds, simply because they don't like noise and cameras. A couple of the German zoos breed kiwi regularly but apparently (so I have read on Zoochat) few zoos are interested in housing them.
