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Kiwi (symbolic image)

Photo: Robert Schlesinger/ picture alliance / dpa

In New Zealand, there is outrage over the treatment of the national bird in a zoo in the USA: In the Miami Zoo, visitors are allowed to pet a kiwi named Paora in bright light and take selfies with the bird for a fee of around 20 dollars (18 euros). This can also be seen on videos that the zoo posted on the Internet. The kiwi – also known as the snipe ostrich – is a flightless bird native only to New Zealand. Above all, however, it is nocturnal.

Angry New Zealanders launched an online petition on Tuesday under the title "Save this abused kiwi". Paora had been sent to the Miami Zoo in 2019 as part of a loan agreement between the Smithsonian National Zoo and the New Zealand government – not yet hatched from the egg.

»Kiwis are our precious treasures, not America's toys«

"He has been tamed and exposed to bright neon lights four days a week, touched by dozens of strangers, stroked by his delicate whiskers, laughed at and displayed like a toy," the petition reads. According to the organizers, they hope that an investigation into the treatment of the bird will be initiated and that it will ultimately be relocated to a more suitable location. "Kiwis are our precious treasures, not America's toys."

Distinctive features of kiwis are their fur-like, delicate feathers, their strong legs with large feet and sharp claws, their atrophied wings and their long beaks. New Zealanders are very proud of the eccentric, which they consider their landmark. On the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), kiwis are classified as endangered.

wit/dpa