Booming Population

The kakapo – star of a recent BBC documentary presented by British actor and raconteur Stephen Fry – is one of the world’s most endangered birds the kakapo, but thanks to the Kakapo Recovery programme, is now numbering 100. Fry was part of a four-man television crew filming the parrot on Codfish Island in January as part of series Last Chance to See, which revisits a book on endangered species written by Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy author, Douglas Adams. “To some extent, the kakapo is one of evolution’s most pitiable errors. On the other hand, there is something in their solemn loveliness. When I say kakapo are ‘evolution’s error’, it’s their complex mating rituals, inability to flee predators and general [sweet] dumbness,” Fry wrote in his online blog from the island. Kakapo Recovery programme manager Deidre Vercoe said the trip had been a successful one for the crew, who witnessed the male kakapo “boom” – a sign the nocturnal parrot was ready to breed.