No Touching!

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New Zealanders expressed outrage at a Florida zoo for allowing visitors to pet a kiwi – New Zealand’s national bird – prompting the institution to stop the controversial practice and apologize to the island nation, the Washington Post reported.

Earlier this week, more than 10,000 people in New Zealand signed an online petition calling to save the kiwi, named Paora, at Zoo Miami.

Videos posted on social media showed the flightless bird taken out of its enclosure and petted by strangers as part of the zoo’s up-close animal encounters, which are offered for $23.36.

Petition creator Jeseka Christieson, a New Zealander, admonished the zoo’s practice, saying that the creatures were precious and not “America’s toys.”

On Tuesday, Zoo Miami released a statement offering “our most profound and sincere apology” and calling the encounter program “not well conceived.”

The reaction also prompted a response from New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who thanked the zoo for stopping the practice.

The bird species are beloved by New Zealanders and the country’s human inhabitants are often referred to as “Kiwis.”

The avians are nocturnal birds that “must not be regularly taken out of their burrows just for the purposes of allowing people to see and touch them,” according to the New Zealand Department of Conservation’s “Kiwi Best Practice Manual.”

The manual adds that kiwis can be gently stroked on their backs only if they are being handled for other reasons, such as rehabilitation or routine health checks.

Paora was hatched at Zoo Miami in 2019. Kiwis in captivity are “extremely rare,” according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.