Watch a Kiwi Re-Learn to Walk on a Custom Treadmill

Even when it’s in their best interest, kiwis have a hard time following directions. So when wildlife rehabbers needed an injured kiwi to take his recovering leg for a spin, they had no other choice but to put him on his own custom-made treadmill.

Ruata the kiwi was found entangled in a trap last June near Ruatahuna in New Zealand with a dislocated lower leg joint. After a vet reset the joint, the bird was sent to Massey University’s Wildbase Centre in Palmerston North, New Zealand, for further treatment. The flightless bird was soon well on his way to recovery—once he got enough exercise.

“Wild kiwis have very active lives and need to have full fitness to fight off predators, establish territories, and deal with rivals,” says Brett Gartell, associate professor at Massay’s Centre.

The treatment method arose from a postgraduate student who used a treadmill while researching her thesis on kiwi locomotion, and had a kiwi who caught on quickly.

“So we started using it for the rehabilitation of injured birds,” says Gartell. Ruata was coaxed through eight weeks of muscle-building training on this custom-sized treadmill (a caretaker was always anxiously spotting from behind in case Ruata took a tumble).

“There are individual personalities of kiwis and some birds tolerate the sessions really well, and others really won’t cooperate with it at all,” says Gartell. Luckily Ruata was amenable and the glorious footage has been released as the bird himself is also preparing for release back into the wild.

The Centre is planning on expanding their rehab aviaries, and will also keep the tiny treadmill for intense cases. It’s come in handy before—in 2010 they used it with Piwi, an accident-prone kiwi that came in with two broken legs. Although reluctant at first, Piwi was soon hitting the gym three days a week for ten minutes at a time.

Check out that gym rat here: