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No, they cannot. New Zealand prior to Maori settlement had no predatory mammals so the Kiwi did not need to fly.

The kiwi is a flightless nocturnal bird native to New Zealand. It evolved to be flightless because it had few predators and no need for flight in pre-human-occupied New Zealand, where there were no mammalian predators, and the few bird predators large enough to threaten it were only active during the day.

To retain the ability to fly actually requires a sacrifice of strength and weight, so it made sense not to retain this unneeded ability.

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13y ago

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