Phamily Day at the Wellington Zoo

This past Monday we enjoyed a nice Wellington spring day at the City Zoo.  It was a good Phamily outing - we all got to see our first kiwi in person.  Obviously it wasn't in the wild, but hey, most Kiwis (the human ones) haven't seen a kiwi (the bird) in the wild.  The one we saw was very special - it was a one-legged kiwi named Tahi.

Tahi unfortunately lost one of his legs in a possum trap.  The zoo then became his new home and he is now an ambassador for the endemic kiwi bird (just in case you didn't know, endemic means 'exclusively native to a certain area / region / country'.  I learned that at the zoo!).  Interesting fact about Tahi - Weta Workshop (the special effects studio that did the Lord of the Rings and Avatar movies, among others) even designed the world's first kiwi prosthetic leg for Tahi.  But by the time the prosthetic leg was completed, Tahi had already learned to get around on one leg by hopping.

Check out the video and fotos of Tahi and his prosthetic...

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