Deborah Kruger

Kakapo

(Strigops Habroptila)

Found in New Zealand. Threats: Agriculture, pets and livestock. They are the oldest, largest and heaviest flightless parrot. There are 123 left on 3 predator-free islands where there is hope that they will breed. Kakapos roost in trees or on the ground during the day and only become active at night. Their mating boom can be heard 3 miles away.In the 1980s, the New Zealand Department of Conservation implemented a Kakapo Recovery Plan. The Plan involved the rounding up and relocation of kakapos to predator-free islands, setting up supplementary feeding stations for the birds, and sometimes artificial incubation of eggs and hand-raising of chicks. The effort has averted the kakapo’s extinction, but they are still critically endangered. As of early 2012, there were 126 kakapos in the wild.

 

Did you know: Both the Māori and early European settlers kept kakapos as pets.