Leseverstehen

A Travel Blog

You are doing some research for a school project on unusual animals.

You have come across a travel blog called “The Exploring Kiwis” by Sarah and Nathan from New Zealand.

On our travels we realised that the majority of the world doesn’t really know what a kiwi is. When

we introduce ourselves as ‘The Exploring Kiwis’ we often get strange looks. People wonder: “Why

are New Zealanders called after a fruit?”

With that in mind, it’s time we explain things for our international readers. A kiwi is a small, flightless

bird that is typical of New Zealand, and it is not found anywhere else in the world. They’re special

little things and they are totally unique to New Zealand.

Kiwis have feathers that look like hair, and they lay massive eggs – they have the biggest eggs in

the world relative to their body size, with baby birds being 20% of the mother’s size. Chickens and

kiwis are about the same size, but a kiwi egg is about six times heavier than a chicken egg!

Kiwis spend the day sleeping and hunt at night. These ancient animals can’t fly, just like some of

their relatives: the ostrich, emu and another New Zealand giant bird, the extinct moa.

Because New Zealand is made up of islands which haven’t had any large, dangerous mammals for

millions of years, kiwis lived for a long time without any major predators. They adapted to their

environment – without any real threats, there was no need to fly, no need for good eyesight.

Unfortunately, however, the kiwis’ environment has changed a lot because humans settled on the

island and brought animals with them. Just one hundred years ago, the kiwi population counted

millions of birds. Today, around 27 kiwis are killed by predators every week. That’s about 2% of

the population every year. A single dog can wipe out all the kiwis in one area in a matter of days.

At this speed, kiwis may disappear from New Zealand in our lifetime.

Luckily, things are improving for some kiwi populations. In controlled areas where kiwis live free

from predators, their numbers are slowly increasing.

… But can you call us ‘Kiwis’?

Absolutely!

As our national bird, the kiwi has become a symbol of New Zealand. When you meet a New Zealander,

you’re welcome to call us Kiwis – a name that has become such a part of our culture that it’s hard to

imagine being called anything else. The kiwi bird was first seen on the badges of soldiers in the late

1880s and is now commonly used to describe people from New Zealand.

So why do these birds have the same name as a fruit? Farmers found out that the ‘Chinese gooseberry’

also grew well down in New Zealand, and it was soon renamed ‘kiwifruit’ due to its similarity to

the kiwi bird – both are brown and fluffy. So, now you know. We’re not named after a fruit at all,

but after a cute, brown flightless bird!

Even though we can’t answer the old question of which came first – the chicken or the egg – we can

say with absolute certainty that the kiwi came before the kiwifruit!

Text stammt aus der Originalprüfung

Tick the correct box and give one piece of evidence from the text by quoting short passages from the text.

Many people worldwide think that New Zealanders ...

a)		eat lots of kiwifruit.
b)		import a lot of kiwifruit.
c)		share the name of the kiwifruit.