Tag Archives: Kakapo

Endangered, flightless bird returns to NZ mainland

Endangered, flightless bird returns to NZ mainland

The iconic and famously cheeky Kākāpō, a flightless bird indigenous to New Zealand, is returning to the nation’s largest main island thanks to conservation efforts by conservation groups, indigenous tribes, and central government. Kākāpō are…

Collaboration Saves the Kākāpō from Extinction

Collaboration Saves the Kākāpō from Extinction

“Kākāpō once lived throughout Aotearoa. Found nowhere else in the world, they have become a national icon, with their muppet-like faces and frequent silliness,” Pete McKenzie writes for National Geographic. But the birds, sometimes…

Endangered Kākāpō Gets Big Population Boost

Endangered Kākāpō Gets Big Population Boost

The population of New Zealand’s endangered flightless kākāpō has increased by 25 per cent in the past year, bringing it up to 252 birds, the highest number since the 1970s, the ABC News reports. “There…

Kākāpō Claims 2020 Bird of the Year Victory

Kākāpō Claims 2020 Bird of the Year Victory

The esteemed kākāpō has soared past its competition to claim victory in New Zealand’s Bird of the Year contest, a tense race marked by attempted voter interference during a divisive month of campaigning, Jennifer Hassan…

Can Technology Save the Kākāpō?

Can Technology Save the Kākāpō?

Large, plump and nocturnal, the kākāpō is the only parrot in the world that lives on the ground and cannot fly. There are only 211 in existence, confined to four small islands off the…

Fossils of Largest Ever Parrot Found in Otago

Fossils of Largest Ever Parrot Found in Otago

The fossils of an enormous parrot, estimated to have weighed about 7kg, have been found near Saint Bathans in Central Otago. The Guardian reports on the discovery. Palaeontologists have named the new species Heracles inexpectatus…

Record-Breaking Breeding Season for the Kākāpō

Record-Breaking Breeding Season for the Kākāpō

The world’s fattest species of parrot, the kākāpō, has had a record-breaking breeding season in New Zealand, with scientists saying the fortunes of the critically-endangered bird are finally turning around. There are only 147 adult…

Saving the Strangest Parrot on Earth

Saving the Strangest Parrot on Earth

It’s as plump as a goose, has the face of an owl and waddles like a duck. It sleeps in the day and is active at night. And it can climb just about anything…

New Zealand Bird of the Year

New Zealand Bird of the Year

The Kererū – “a native green and bronze wood pigeon with a taste for fermented fruit has been named the 2019 bird of the year in New Zealand” in a poll organised by Forest…

Frisky Spokesbird Sirocco Comes out of Hiding

Frisky Spokesbird Sirocco Comes out of Hiding

Sirocco, New Zealand’s superstar kakapo, is alive and well in Fiordland, according to the Department of Conservation. The conservation ‘spokesbird’ shot to fame after he got a bit too friendly…

Kea Soars to Bird of the Year Victory

Kea Soars to Bird of the Year Victory

The kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, has been crowned New Zealand Bird of the Year, beating the kereru and the kakapo with thousands more votes cast for the species than there are surviving…

NZ Kakapo’s Successful Breeding Season

NZ Kakapo’s Successful Breeding Season

The critically endangered kakapo – one of the world’s rarest birds – “saw its numbers boom by 28%” with 34 new chicks this year. That brings its population up to 157, as reported in…

Kakapo Conservationists Celebrate Breeding Success

Kakapo Conservationists Celebrate Breeding Success

The kakapo, the world’s heaviest parrot, a critically endangered bird that only lives in a remote part of New Zealand, has had its most successful breeding season since conservation efforts began more than two…

Kakapo May Need Parasites to Survive

Kakapo May Need Parasites to Survive

Conservation biologists are doing everything they can to keep the critically endangered kakapo from vanishing. And so, when they discovered a few years ago that a pair of captive kakapo were infected with tapeworms,…

Kakapo Genome Sequencing a Whole Lot of Help

Kakapo Genome Sequencing a Whole Lot of Help

A group of kakapo will have their genomes sequenced in the hope it will improve the birds’ genetic diversity. There are only 125 kakapo left and every one of them will have their genetic…

Sirocco the Kakapo a Great Conservationist Spokesbird

Sirocco the Kakapo a Great Conservationist Spokesbird

Sirocco the kakapo is a great spokesbird to travel New Zealand and share the conservation message, according to James Russell from the University of Auckland, who recently met the hand-raised bird. “The kakapo is an…

New Zealanders Fight to Pull Back Kakapo from Extinction

New Zealanders Fight to Pull Back Kakapo from Extinction

7 March 2014 – New Zealanders are pulling out all the stops to save the nation’s second most favourite bird, the kakapo – a friendly, flightless, green feathered parrot that teeters on…

19th Century Plate Depicts Extraordinary Set of Birds

19th Century Plate Depicts Extraordinary Set of Birds

“No country on the globe can offer such an extraordinary set of birds as are here depicted,” wrote British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace of “the peculiar Ornithology of New Zealand” in The Geographical Distribution…

Tramp the Past with Milford Anniversary Heritage Walk

Tramp the Past with Milford Anniversary Heritage Walk

The Milford Track is celebrating its 125th anniversary with a Department of Conversation (DOC) guided commemorative heritage walk to be held between 31 October and 3 November so that participating trampers may have…

He Ain’t Ugly, He’s Our Parrot

He Ain’t Ugly, He’s Our Parrot

An international public vote has given the beloved and endangered New Zealand parrot, the kakapo, the unwanted title of the world’s second most ugly animal. The ugliest, according to the online campaign by the…

Sirocco Kakapo Creates a Buzz in Japan

Sirocco Kakapo Creates a Buzz in Japan

New Zealand’s own celebrity parrot, Sirocco Kakapo, has charmed Japanese audiences and gained thousands of new fans after being mentioned on a popular Japanese television show with an audience of over 10 million. A presenter…

Kakapo in Global Ugly Animal Contest

Kakapo in Global Ugly Animal Contest

New Zealand’s native kakapo has been thrust into the international spotlight, named as one of just 12 endangered animals to be included on the Ugly Animal Preservation Society’s list of ugliest animals…

Puttin’ ‘Em Back in the Trees

Puttin’ ‘Em Back in the Trees

A mammoth conservation effort stretching back decades is offering hope for one of the world’s rarest birds, the kakapo, lifting its numbers from about 50 in 1990 to 126 this year. The kakapo was…

Magical Parrot Meetings

Magical Parrot Meetings

The rangers and scientists of the Kakapo Recovery program on Codfish Island are slowly but surely succeeding in their mission to “make more kakapo” by micromanaging the birds’ diet, mating, births, and fledging —…

Kakapo Star in Rat Island

Kakapo Star in Rat Island

New Zealand’s Kakapo are the focus of a new book telling the stories of the world’s best cases of predator eradication. Written by William Stolzenburg, Rat Island tells the stories of two heroic rescues…

Loved By Robins and Kakapo Alike

Loved By Robins and Kakapo Alike

Internationally renowned conservationist Don Merton has died in Tauranga, aged 72. “Forest and Bird is extraordinarily grateful for the work Don did over several decades,” Forest and Bird executive member Dr Peter Maddison said….

One-of-a-kind Parrot

One-of-a-kind Parrot

The kakapo, Strigops habroptilus, also known as the owl parrot, is the Guardian’s “Mystery Bird” this week. “This stunning but rare species is so unusual that it is the only member of its genus…

Richard Henry Lives On

Richard Henry Lives On

Legendary kakapo, Richard Henry, whose genetic material helped recover the species of rare flightless parrot, has died at the ripe old age of 80. Researchers believed the kakapo had been nearly wiped out and…

Help from Afar

Help from Afar

A conservation awareness “Kakapo Parrot Day” event in Greenwich, Conneticut organised by a local teenager keen to help with the endangered bird’s survival will be held on December 11. Aaron Friedman, a student at…

Distance makes special

Distance makes special

New Zealand “is the ideal destination to gain maximum distance from everyday life” describes German magazine Geo in a special edition about this country, which includes stunning photographs of Fiordland, Nugget Point and Hoopers…

Parrot’s Love Affair

Parrot’s Love Affair

Sirocco the kakapo has caused a stir in cyber space after he was captured on camera mating with the head of a British zoologist. The footage, which has received more than half a million…

Our Feathered Friends

Our Feathered Friends

“New Zealand’s island ecology – from the kauri trees to the kiwi, the country’s emblematic bird – is unique,” writes The Independent on Sunday’s Ben Ross. “Twenty years ago, Douglas Adams – the man…

Stephen Fry Encounters a Kakapo

Stephen Fry Encounters a Kakapo

Stephen Fry meets Sirocco the Kakapo.

Kakapo Comeback

Kakapo Comeback

The Kakapo, a flightless, nocturnal, critically threatened New Zealand parrot that was long thought extinct, has staged a tiny comeback. Scientists are hailing the arrival of 34 kakapo chicks this year, propelling the total…

Booming Population

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…

Heading the Catalogue of Life

Heading the Catalogue of Life

Dr David Penman has been elected chair of the governing board of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, an international organization working to develop the world’s first free mega-database of all living organisms. The internet resource, which will help…

Leading the field

Leading the field

“Never before has technology played such a pivotal role in bringing an animal back from the brink, setting the stage for computer-based rescues of endangered species elsewhere.” SMH feature documents the radical efforts of NZ scientists and conservationists…

Tweety 1, Sylvester 0

Tweety 1, Sylvester 0

” has built up something of a reputation for bringing endangered birds back from the brink of extinction,” the kakapo being a prime example. Armed with electric blankets, video monitoring equipment, and over 100 volunteer nest-minders, NZ…

No Dodo

No Dodo

New Scientist features the Kakapo’s claw-back from the brink of extinction: “What’s green, nocturnal, looks like an owl, smells sweet and fruity, and makes strange noises from growls and “skrarks” to metallic “chings” and deep resonant…

Kakapo’s Getting It On

Kakapo’s Getting It On

The world’s “rarest, heaviest, and only nocturnal and flightless” parrot, NZ’s native kakapo, enjoys a record breeding season with 22 chicks hatching on Whenua Hou, a small island off Stewart Island. Thanks to the bumper brood, kakapo…

Avian Aphrodisiac

Avian Aphrodisiac

There are only 62 Kakapo in the world, and they don’t always seem that interested in making more. DOC scientists, hoping to see some action from the feather fellows, have concocted a special kind of muesli…