A tragic find on a Ngunguru road is a timely reminder for drivers to take care that the thing that goes bump in the night is not a kiwi.
A dead, juvenile female kiwi was found by resident Mike Camm on the side of Pukenui Rd last Wednesday, with injuries indicating it was hit by a car.
Mr Camm, of Tutukaka Landcare, said the kiwi, thought to be between eight and 12 months old, was unbanded, meaning it was wild-bred and not part of a translocation or monitored breeding programme.
Mr Camm said that although possums and other animals were often found on roads after being hit by cars, he hoped people would take extra care driving at night in kiwi zones.
The nocturnal birds often crossed roads in the protected, pest-controlled areas where their numbers are increasing.
The Department of Conservation (DoC) does not intend carrying out a necropsy on the carcass but will offer the feathers to iwi for cultural purposes.
While vehicles feature highly in reasons for kiwi deaths, dogs remain their biggest danger. Statistics show that since 2000, dogs were responsible for 68 per cent of adult kiwi deaths in the Whangarei Kiwi Sanctuary where the cause could be identified.
Before widespread protection measures, up to 95 per cent of pre-breeding age wild kiwi were killed by predators, including dogs, or loss of habitat.
Last October, a Kerikeri man found a kiwi killed by dogs near his property, ironically during Save Kiwi Month and just after the announcement of a government plan to boost kiwi numbers to 100,000 by the year 2030.
In 2015 at least eight kiwi were mauled to death by dogs in the Wharau Rd-Kerikeri Inlet Rd area, the killers eventually identified as the culprits through DNA testing of saliva found on the dead birds.
In 1987, a single dog dumped in Waitangi Forest killed an estimated 500 kiwi.
The birds' strong, earthy smell is irresistible to dogs and kiwi don't have a breast bone, which makes them particularly susceptible to a dog bite.