An injured kiwi was nursed back to health by staff at Rainbow Springs' Kiwi Encounter.

A North Island kiwi has learned to walk again after an ill-fated brush with a trap dislocated his feathery leg.

Department of Conservation staff found Ruata the kiwi ensnared in the remote forest near Ruatahuna in June.

A Rainbow Springs' Kiwi Encounter vet put Ruata's lower leg joint back in place under general anaesthetic, before the bird was flown to Massey University's Wildlife Centre at its Palmerston North campus.

SUPPLIED It's been a long road to recovery for injured Ruata.

Ruata's intensive rehabilitation involved eight weeks of leg-strengthening using a tiny, specially built treadmill.

In video footage of the bird on the machine, Ruata can been seen taking purposeful, if slightly heavy-footed, strides.

A pair of disembodied hands is splayed in anticipation of any unsteadiness, and at one point Ruata's cuddly body zooms backwards into their grasp.

TREVOR KELLY/VETPLUS An X-ray of Ruata's damaged leg.

Ruata returned to the Kiwi Encounter intensive care unit in Rotorua for a few weeks, before being transferred to an outdoor pen monitored with night vision motion sensors.

Kiwi Encounter husbandry manager Claire Travers said they had been keeping a "careful eye" on Ruata's progress.

"It's of vital importance that quick action is taken with injuries such as this and we're over the moon that, in this instance, everyone worked together so beautifully to see Ruata taken care of."

TREVOR KELLY/VETPLUS An X-ray of Ruata's healed leg.

On Friday, Ruata was quarantined ahead of a scheduled release to the wild in three weeks.

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