New Zealand’s enigmatic and endangered kakapo

02/15/2010

Sirocco the kakapo spokes-parrot is one of only 124 left in the world/Crown Copyright: New Zealand Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai-Photographer: Mike Brodie

When I learned about the kakapo (Strigops habroptila), New Zealand’s oversized, yellow-green, nocturnal, flightless parrot, they enthralled me. Just look at them! They’ve got this chubby body and something on their beak that looks like spectacles. They almost resemble an owl. New Zealand prime minister John Key recently named Sirocco – the 12-year old kakapo who appeared in the BBC documentary “Last Chance to See” – as New Zealand’s “Official Spokesbird for Conservation” to herald in 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity (You can follow him on twitter). Sirocco became world-famous after he tried to mate with the cameraman’s head in the documentary, which led to a spike in interest in the birds. Check it out below. It’s pretty hilarious!

Kakapo means night parrot in the Maori language and sadly, only 124 remain in all the world of these critically endangered birds. Being a flightless parrot served them fine in the geological past when New Zealand had no land predators. But when people brought in cats, rats, and stoats, they pretty much wiped out the poor parrots, who had no real defenses against them. The Kakapo Recovery Program, a partnership between the New Zealand Department of Conservation, Forest and Bird and Rio Tinto Alcan NZ/New Zealand Aluminum Smelters, saw a surge in the number of surviving chicks last year, bringing the total number over 100 for the first time in decades. Because conservationists work so close with these birds, most of the wild ones have names. The oldest, Richard Henry, is at least 40  years old, but Department of Conservation Rangers think he's probably over 60 years old!

To promote higher survival rates, biologists captive-reared 26 of those 34 chicks of chicks due to a lack of food in their natural habitat. "All but one of the 34 chicks survived and the 33 healthy chicks have since been released into the wild where they are thriving in their natural habitat and being closely monitored," says Donna WIlliams, of the New Zealand Department of Conservation. Besides being the largest and the world’s only nocturnal parrot, another claim to fame is their subsonic mating call, or boom, that travels several miles. They’re also the only flightless bird to have a lekking mating system, which means several males compete for females but only one or a few get all the girls. The remaining kakapos mostly live on two island sanctuaries –including Codfish – offshore from New Zealand’s South Island where mammalian predators have been removed. The battle against exotic rats and other predators, which kill chicks, is ongoing.

Comments

[Brody]

Hi my name is Brody,you know I'd never learnd about that bird in school.Some day I would like to learn about a bird that is wild. I bet you guys have fun taping so many animals.

[FREDERICK CORNELIOUS JOHNSON]

I THINK THAT SOMEONE SHOULD TRY TO HELP THE BIRDS REPOPULATE BEFORE THEY BECOME EXTINCT

[FREDERICK CORNELIOUS JOHNSON]

i think that someone should try and help to repopulate these birds

[FREDERICK CORNELIOUS JOHNSON]

I think that someone should try and repopulate these birds

[The Boat Accessories & Marine VHF Radio Guy]

I had never heard of a flightless parrot before. Poor birds really do not have much protection against predators. I hope they do not go extinct. What a shame.

[tay jonas]

pple need to leave wildlife alone so theycan have peace and so they wont go extinct. I know they want to see them .... KEEP UR DISTINCES PLZ!!!! SAVE THE WILDLIFE I agree with {FREDRICK CORNELIOUS JOHNSON}lol ha ha

[Nicola]

I know about them a lot, and I know in 1999 there were only 62 of them left!