Proapteryx (SciiFii)

The short-billed kiwi (Proapteryx micromeros) is a species of kiwi that originally lived from 16–19 million years ago during the early Miocene, as one of the St Bathans Fauna of Otago, New Zealand, and was once extinct, but has since been brought back from extinction by SciiFii and introduced throughout the modern rainforests, wetlands, forests, and open woodlands across New Zealand to help boost biodiversity. The short-billed kiwi is considerably smaller than other kiwis, weighing around 234.1–377 grams (the smallest native modern kiwi, Apteryx owenii, weighs at least 800 grams), and it has a more gracile otic process with an equally shorter bill, hence its name. It bears distinctively slender hindlimbs, more comparable in terms of proportion to flying birds like the banded rail than to other kiwis, despite being completely flightless, being a more primitive relative to other kiwis. The short-billed kiwi lacks specialisation for a terrestrial, flightless lifestyle of other kiwis. As such, it is a mollusc specialist, more akin to shorebirds in terms of diet than other kiwis, feeding primarily on snails, which compose about 79% of its diet, though it can also feed on crayfish and similar large crustaceans, bivalves, worms, insects, frogs (particularly tadpoles), and small caecillians. The conservation status of the short-billed kiwi is Least Concern due to successful conservation efforts.