Titanic actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio has heaped praise on a Wellington group attempting to reintroduce kiwi back into "their own urban backyard".
In an Instagram post to his 61 million followers, DiCaprio uploaded a picture of two kiwi being handled by one of the volunteers at conservation group Capital Kiwi.
"As the wild disappears from most cities around the world, New Zealand's capital has been transformed by efforts to welcome native birds into its urban backyard," he wrote.
"Like many cities across the globe, human activity, habitat destruction, and invasive species had decimated Wellington's birdlife. By the 1990s, many native species were on the brink of going locally extinct.
"For example, in 2022, the @capital.kiwi project was launched as a community initiative to help reintroduce iconic kiwis back into Wellington's wilds after a 100-year absence. By restoring a wild, sustainable population of kiwi to Wellington, they are making a significant contribution to saving this beloved species and #rewilding New Zealand."
DiCaprio also shared a direct link to the group.
Many praised the actor for taking time to highlight the conservation work done in Aotearoa.
"Thank you for sharing our precious kiwi, Leo," one commented on his post.
Others were clearly seeing New Zealand's iconic bird for the first time.
"Thanks Leo for interesting post. As an artist, I was surprised by the shape of their nose. This is an amazing shape. Very sexy, but at the same time very shy guys," they wrote.
While Capital Kiwi has not directly responded to di Caprio's comments, they did share a series of other people's reaction posts on their Instagram Story.
Pictures ranged from those sharing the original post with various emoji including the kiwi as well as one post that mentioned it was "great to see Kiwi Capital getting recognition".
According to Capital Kiwi's website, the group "is a collaboration between locals, landowners and iwi: working together to transform the scale and pace of kiwi conservation."
It is not known what prompted DiCaprio to highlight their work, but he is well known for his environmental work, having previously shared messages about the state of the planet and campaigners like Greta Thunberg.
