.kiwi

.kiwi is an Internet generic top-level domain with emphasis on New Zealand. It employs the colloquial term kiwi, used to refer to New Zealanders. It is New Zealand's first and presently only "top level domain name approved by ICANN".

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Further reading

Kiwi!

Kiwi! is a 2006 computer-generated animation created by Dony Permedi, a student in the New York City School of Visual Arts, as his Master's Thesis Animation, with music composed and performed by Tim Cassell. The animation's story of a kiwi that aspires to fly created a major Internet phenomenon after it was hosted on the video sharing site YouTube. Unofficial versions of the video pair it with Mad World by Tears for Fears. These versions became popular viral videos.

Plot

The video itself centers around a kiwi bird who is mysteriously seen to be nailing an array of trees to the side of a sheer cliff so that they stick out horizontally. After the kiwi finishes it returns to the top of the cliff, before donning an aviator's cap and suddenly jumping off. As it dives down the cliff head-first the camera view turns sideways, revealing the purpose behind the kiwi's efforts. A tear wells from one eye as the kiwi achieves its dream, flapping its tiny wings as it "flies" above the forest of trees. The kiwi then disappears into the fog below: at the very end a faint thump is heard, implying that it died in the attempt.

Kiwi

Kiwi (pronounced /kiːwiː/) 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. 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.