The kiwi, New Zealand’s sacred national bird, vanished from the hills around Wellington more than a century ago.
Now the capital’s residents are waging an improbable citizen campaign to return the endangered flightless birds to the city.
On a hill wreathed in mist above the dark sea that runs between New Zealand’s North and South Islands, Ward and others crossed rugged farmland late on Tuesday night, carrying seven crates in silence by dim red torchlight.
Ward and his friends set their crates down in pairs, slid them open and gently tilted the boxes.
Inside each one nestled a kiwi, including the 250th bird relocated to Wellington since the Capital Kiwi Project began.
About 70,000 kiwi remain in New Zealand, down from an estimated 12 million before human settlement. The population falls by roughly 2% each year.