Myth 1: "Kiwi fight with their beaks."

Kiwi may snap their bill shut when they are frightened but that's not very scarey. For a kiwi to fight with its beak would be like trying to head-butt someone with your nose - painful!

Kiwi have powerful legs and sharp claws and they use these to defend themselves. Sometimes they hold onto something with their beaks, but their legs and feet are doing the damage. Sometimes kiwi kill other kiwi in fights over territory.

Myth 2: "Kiwi are cute, gentle little creatures"

They are actually super-strong, and often extremely bad-tempered. Department of Conservation workers are sometimes attacked when they are in a kiwi's area. If workers make kiwi calls the bird rushes through the bush. One man said: "It's amazing to hear them coming to kick us out. They sound like a deer charging, almost exploding, through the dark. Standing there, it's quite frightening - even for us. I guess it's part of the the threat display."

A Great Spotted Kiwi called Pete attacks DOC workers all the time. "We've just got to walk into his territory and he comes catapaulting in for a hit-and-run. He belts you in the leg and then runs off into the undergrowth. I think he views us as super-big kiwi. He's probably given some trampers a helluva scare."

Myth 3: "Kiwi are a bit thick"

Kiwi are able to learn quickly from things that happen to them. For example, if they hear someone coming during the day they may move to another burrow - even though they would rather move around at night.

Myth 4: "Kiwi move slowly"

When we go to the zoo we may see kiwi moving slowly around their darkened cages. This is proably because they have such a small space to live in. But in the bush they move quickly and can travel over large distances.

Imagine this: a kiwi can cover his/her territory - possibly the size of 60 football fields - in a single night.This might take in three valley systems, streams, and all sorts of obstacles.

Myth 5: "Kiwi are half-blind"

Some people think that Kiwi have poor eyesight beccause their eyes are small and because they move around at night. But Kiwi can see well in the daylight and at night. They can run fast, swerving around trees and things on the ground.

Myth 6: "Kiwi don't live very long."

This is only half a myth because many kiwi don't live very long. But this is mostly because animals like cats, dogs, ferrets, and stoats kill them. If these animals were not in New Zealand, most kiwi would live to be about 40 years old.