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kiwi
Kiwi (pronounced ) or kiwis are flightless birds native to New Zealand, in the genus ''Apteryx'' and family Apterygidae. At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites (which also consist of ostriches, emus, rheas, and cassowaries), and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Birds: Kiwi )〕 DNA sequence comparisons have yielded the surprising conclusion that kiwi are much more closely related to the extinct Malagasy elephant birds than to the moa with which they shared New Zealand.〔 There are five recognised species, two of which are currently vulnerable, one of which is endangered, and one of which is critically endangered. All species have been negatively affected by historic deforestation but currently the remaining large areas of their forest habitat are well protected in reserves and national parks. At present, the greatest threat to their survival is predation by invasive mammalian predators.
The kiwi is a national symbol of New Zealand, and the association is so strong that the term ''Kiwi'' is used internationally as the colloquial demonym for New Zealanders.
==Etymology==
The Māori language word ''kiwi'' ( ) is generally accepted to be "of imitative origin" from the call. However, some linguists derive the word from Proto-Nuclear Polynesian ''
*kiwi'', which refers to ''Numenius tahitiensis'', the bristle-thighed curlew, a migratory bird that winters in the tropical Pacific islands. With its long decurved bill and brown body, the curlew resembles the kiwi. So when the first Polynesian settlers arrived, they may have applied the word kiwi to the new-found bird.〔 The genus name ''Apteryx'' is derived from Ancient Greek "without wing": ''a-'', "without" or "not"; ''pterux'', "wing".
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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