Kākāpō

Looks cute, right? I agree 😃

The kākāpō is a large, flightless, nocturnal, critically endangered parrot found only in New Zealand. It was once one of the most common and widespread birds in the country. Well-adapted to life in the cool, wet forests and with no native land mammals other than bats, the kākāpō only had to worry about finding enough food and avoiding the eagles and hawks that hunted by day.
Since humans arrived in New Zealand, kākāpō have disappeared from much of their natural range and now can only be found on a few offshore islands around the coast of New Zealand.

The Kākāpō Recovery Programme began in 1995 when just 51 individual kākāpō were known to exist. Every kākāpō is given a name, and each wears a special "smart" transmitter which is used to monitor its location, health, mating and nesting activity. The data are collected by data loggers, and relayed either by radio networks or satellite.

Over the last twenty years the kākāpō population has grown slowly since kākāpō breed infrequently — only once every 2–3 years when the Rimu trees mast (mass fruiting). During these years males dig several shallow "bowls" on the high points of the islands, and "boom" from them to attract female kākāpō. They do this all night every night for up to three months. After mating, the female kākāpō will lay one to four eggs in a dry hollow. The chicks are tiny when they hatch (about 30g) but grow quickly under their mother’s diligent care. The kākāpō team works around the clock to monitor breeding activity and the health of adults, eggs and chicks. Nests are modified to ensure they’re waterproof, and eggs are artificially incubated to minimize egg damage, replaced by dummy eggs in the nest. Any chicks that would otherwise starve or become ill are hand-reared by the team. With such a small population it’s important that as many chicks as possible survive.

Historically, they were an important food source for the Māori (indigenous New Zealand people). With the arrival of the Europeans, hunting and habitat loss increased. Many species of mammals were also introduced such as rats, stoats, dogs and cats. The kākāpō had no defense against these predators and their numbers quickly dwindled.
Extensive searches of Fiordland from 1974–1977 found just 18 kākāpō, all males. In 1977 a population of about 200 kākāpō, including females, were found on Rakiura (Stewart Island). Feral cats were preying heavily on the population. It was decided that the only option was to move them to the safety of island sanctuaries which had been cleared of mammalian predators.

As the population slowly increases the Kākāpō Recovery Programme is busy looking for new homes for kākāpō and developing better technology which will allow more efficient monitoring of the birds. One day it is hoped to return kākāpō to the mainland of New Zealand, returning the heartbeat of the land and allowing people to once again see and hear these beautiful birds in their natural habitat.

Picture credits: Google Earth