Miami Zoo apologizes to New Zealand for mistreatment of the kiwi fruit

kiwi (the bird, not the fruit) about the size of a chicken, with a very rounded back, no tail (in fact, it does not fly) grey-brown feathers, and a very long pale beak, blunt-ended. It is above all, since 1905, the national emblem of New Zealand, which does not mess with symbols. The kiwi is “at the heart of Maori legend”. They are strong, resilient, adaptable and many more we associate with New Zealanders. It is found only on the archipelago (they even named it after the inhabitants), but it is an endangered and protected species. Most of the locals have never seen one in the wild.

“Meet Kiwi”

4-year-old Bawra was born and lives at Miami Zoo in the US (but like pandas with China, he still belongs to New Zealand). You should know that the kiwi diaspora is not very large: only 60 individuals live in captivity in the world. To bring some money into the coffers, the zoo that celebrated his birth with great fanfare had the good idea of ​​organizing VIP sessions with Paora.

“Meet the Kiwi”: $23 to handle it, stroke its head, tickle its whiskers (because kiwis also have whiskers) or feed it…all under the very bright light of a projector to keep them awake: perfect for Insta selfies, but not Great for kiwis, they are a skittish nocturnal and frankly not sociable.

As a result, we came close to a diplomatic crisis: as soon as they saw the pictures, New Zealanders were outraged. They started a petitionShe organized a campaign of emails of complaints to the zoo, and sounded the alert to the Department of Conservation who went there with her suspension. Others even made appeals to the prime minister to raise the matter with the US ambassador in Wellington.

“It was frankly indefensible.”

Within 24 hours the zoo had relented, wrote a long apology to one of the complainants and their spokesperson responded to all the New Zealand media as here on local TV

“It was frankly untenable…we were wrongRon Magill, who regretted it, admits.offended a nationHe announces that Paora will no longer have any direct contact with the public, and ‘Meeting with the Kiwi’ has been permanently removed from the programme. He is immediately thanked by the Prime Minister of New Zealand.”to take it seriously“.”It shows that New Zealanders are very proud of their national bird when abroad, and take action if they see a kiwi being mistreated.said Chris Hipkins.

The birds, once numbered 12 million in New Zealand, have seen their numbers drop to just 68,000, according to charity Save the Kiwi, and conservation efforts have raised awareness of their vulnerability.

We have known panda diplomacy, and now we have a lot to learn from kiwi diplomacy.