The world’s only flightless parrot species was once thought doomed by design. The kakapo is too heavy, too slow and, frankly, too delicious to survive around predators, and takes a shamelessly relaxed approach to reproduction.
But the nocturnal and reclusive native bird’s fate is edging toward survival after an unlikely conservation effort that has coaxed the population from about 50 to more than 200 over three decades. This year, with a bumper crop of the strange parrot’s favourite berries prompting rare enthusiasm for mating, those working to save the birds hope for a record number of chicks in February, moving the kakapo closer to defying what not long ago seemed certain extinction.
Kakapo live on three tiny, remote islands off New Zealand’s southern coast, and chances to see them in the wild are scarce. This breeding season has launched one of the birds to internet fame through a livestreamed video of her underground nest, where her chick hatched on Tuesday.
The kakapo is a majestic creature that can live for 60 to 80 years. But they are undoubtedly strange to look at. Weighing over 3 kilograms, they have owllike faces, whiskers and mottled green, yellow and black plumage that mimics dappled light on the forest floor. That is where the flightless parrot lives, which has complicated its survival.
“Kakapo also have a really strong scent,” said Deidre Vercoe, operations manager for the Department of Conservation’s kakapo programme. “They smell really musky and fruity — gorgeous smell.”
The pungent aroma was bad news when humans arrived hundreds of years ago. The introduction of rats, dogs, cats and stoats, along with hunting and destruction of native forest habitats, drove many of the country’s flightless birds — the kakapo among them — to near or complete extinction. By 1974, no kakapo were known to exist. Conservationists kept looking and, in the late 1970s, discovered a new population.
One reason the population has grown slowly is that kakapo breeding is, like everything about the birds, peculiar. Years or even decades can pass between successful clutches of eggs.
A breeding season happens only every two to four years, in response to bumper crops of fruit from the native rimu trees the parrots favour, which last occurred in 2022. A huge food source is needed for chicks to survive, but it is not known exactly how adult birds detect an abundant harvest.
Then things get stranger. Male kakapo position themselves in dug-out bowls in the ground and emit deep booming sounds followed by noises known as “chings,” like the movement of rusty bedsprings.
The booms, which on clear nights can carry across the forest, attract females. Females can lay up to four eggs before raising chicks alone.
Each bird has a name and a small backpack tracker; if one vanishes, it is nearly impossible to find. The parrot is one of many spirited and eccentric birds in a country where birds reign supreme. “We don’t have the Eiffel Tower or the pyramids, but we do have kakapo and kiwi,” Vercoe said. “It’s a real duty to save these birds.”
Associated Press