The Kakapo is a parrot in dire straits. On the brink of extinction, this incredibly unique parrot really needs help to survive. The information on this page will get you acquainted with the Kakapo and hopefully urge you to help this endangered species. As you will soon discover, it is definitely a bird worth saving.

The Remarkable Kakapo
The ancient, flightless Kakapo is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable birds in the world. To call it unique is an understatement. It is a parrot that looks like an owl, hops like a sparrow, growls like a dog and has a very unique smell.

The Kakapo (night parrot) is one of New Zealand's unique ‘treasures' and with only 86 known surviving birds it is listed internationally as a critically endangered species.

The only flightless and nocturnal parrot in the world, the Kakapo is also the heaviest, weighing up to 4 kilograms (9 lbs). They have been known to live to the ripe old age of 60 years, and the male Kakapo is the only parrot to have inflatable thoracic sacs. These truly amazing birds are found only in New Zealand .

The Kakapo is the only representative of a unique sub-family, Strigops habroptilus, which means ‘owl-faced soft feathers' and has many features of an owl such as a soft plumage and almost fur-like discs around the eyes. With mossy-green and yellow feathers, camouflage is the bird's main form of defence.

Kakapo Behaviour
The Kakapo is definitely a loner, sleeping all day and preferring to wander the forest at night, alone. They only gather to breed, and the females are left to raise the chicks alone.

When disturbed, the Kakapo will freeze, hoping to blend into the background. Unlike other animals which have defense mechanisms, the Kakapo obviously adjusted to New Zealand at a time when there were no predators such as rats, cats and dogs. Unfortunately for the Kakapo, it is this behaviour which as decimated it's numbers in the last 150 years.

Meeting a Kakapo
An encounter with a Kakapo will reveal a thick, musty Kakapo smell. The smell is so strong and distinctive, that it betrays the presence of the bird to dogs, cats and other predators from a great distance, and was a primary cause of the rapid decline in numbers of the Kakapo.

Once you have adjusted to the smell, you will be captivated by the un-birdlike behaviour of the Kakapo. It's waddling gait, it's curiosity, wide range of calls, and it's comic antics meant that in historic times, the Kakapo was occasionally kept as a pet by early settlers of New Zealand.

If you get close enough to touch a Kakapo, you will experience it's soft downy feel. It's feathers are perfect in colour for blending into it's environment and providing camouflage.

Getting Around
Whilst they cannot fly, Kakapo are very good climbers and use their wings effectively for balancing and slowing themselves down when leaping from trees. Many thousands of years ago, the Kakapo was probably a typical lightweight parrot which could fly. However, the process of evolution in New Zealand, without mammals, saw the Kakapo give away it's flying skills, put on weight, and become an excellent hiker and climber. A bird can range several kilometres in one night!

Feeding
Kakapo's are herbivores, feeding mostly on fruits, seeds, leaves, stems and roots of many native plants. Due to the supplementary feeding programme that staff of the Kakapo Recovery Team provide, the tastes of the Kakapo have somewhat become refined to include almonds, walnuts, apples and special muesli. However, their favourite fruit is that of the Rimu tree.

Breeding
The male Kakapo can swell up like a porcupine fish and emit a low 'sonic' boom that travels up to five kilometres in the breeding season!

The Kakapo's whole breeding repertoire is highly unusual.

In the breeding season, which usually starts in about December, male Kakapo take to prominent ridges, rocks or hilltops with low-growing vegetation to begin a courtship competition for female attention. This is known as 'lek' breeding, and is not known from any other parrot species in the world - or from any other New Zealand bird.

From its high perch, each bird inflates a thoracic air sac and emits a deep resonant 'boom' from its swollen body, announcing to any females in the area that he is ready to mate. They also make a high metallic call, or 'ching'

The males compete against each other, and can release thousands of 'booms' a night.

Each bird also forms a network of tracks radiating from a bowl-like depression in the earth, from which it is based. This is known as a 'track and bowl' system, which is also unique among parrot species of the world.

The female Kakapo will travel several kilometres to visit the males and mate. But, after mating, the females are left to tend the nest by themselves - the males just keep booming and chinging in the hope of finding another mate!

The female Kakapo lays between one and four eggs, which hatch after about 30 days. As a solo mum, the female has to leave the nest at night in search of food, leaving the eggs or chicks exposed to the threat of predation. The chicks will typically fledge, or leave the nest, after about 10-12 weeks. However, the mother may keep feeding the chicks for up to six months.

Fight for Survival
Early Polynesian settlers hunted the bird for its plumage and meat. At the beginning of the 19th century, kakapo were still widespread throughout New Zealand. From the 1840s, European settlers not only hunted the bird, they cleared and set fire to bush for farming, destroying its habitat.

Most devastating of all to its survival was the introduction of predators such as rats, cats and stoats. In ancient history, its only endemic predator was a giant eagle (now extinct) and it developed the habit of nesting, rearing and feeding its young on the ground. This nesting behaviour made its eggs and chicks easy prey to introduced mammalian predators, especially cats.

By the 1970s, only a few isolated birds were known to exist in Fiordland, South Island. A survey of Stewart Island in 1977 found about 200 more birds but they were rapidly declining through predation by feral cats. Following transfers of all the remaining kakapo, they are now managed by the Department of Conservation on two offshore islands: Te Kakahu o Tamatea (Chalky Island) in south-west Fiordland and Whenua Hou (Codfish Island) near Stewart Island. Birds were removed from Maud Island (Te Hoiere) in 2003.

The Recovery Plan
The Department of Conservation has a National Kakapo Team and has formulated a recovery plan. The recovery programme is sponsored by Comalco New Zealand in conjunction with the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. Its aim is to establish at least one self sustaining unmanaged population of kakapo in a protected habitat and to establish two or more other populations which may require ongoing management. The recovery team has identified several major objectives to help save the kakapo:

• To maximise egg and chick survival by reducing mortality from predation, starvation, disease, parasites, inadequate hygiene, natural disasters and poor parenting. Research includes the electronic monitoring of nests.
• To maintain and increase the breeding life of kakapo.
• To identify ways of increasing kakapo breeding frequency. This includes research on plant hormones and possible environmental triggers which may initiate its breeding.
• To manage islands for kakapo populations. This includes kiore (Polynesian rat) eradication on existing and potential island refuges.

Breeding Success!
A record-breaking twenty-four new chicks, nine males and fifteen females, were added to the population in 2002, bringing it to the highest total in decades (86 birds). The chicks were the result of natural breeding on Whenua Hou.

This new boost to the kakapo population means that there is now a strong group of young females available to contribute to breeding in future years. 2002 also saw the first breeding for a hand-raised kakapo – Hoki who was hand-raised on Maud island laid a fertile egg and successfully cared for a chick.

What Can I Do? (I hear you say!)
One of the most exciting things about the Kakapo Recovery Programme is the strong support and enthusiasm from people throughout the world.

Every year, the programme receives donations, requests for information, historical anecdotes and a range of ideas that all help in our conservation campaign.

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