Kakapo

Kakapo, (Strigops habroptilus), giant flightless nocturnal parrot (family Psittacidae) of New Zealand. With a face like an owl, a posture like a penguin, and a walk like a duck, the extraordinarily tame and gentle kakapo is one of strangest and rarest birds on Earth. Although most academic sources list the bird’s scientific name as Strigops habroptilus, there are some that refer to the kakapo as Strigops habroptila.

Natural history

Heaviest of the world’s parrots, the 64-cm (25-inch) kakapo weighs up to 6 kg (13 pounds) and has moss-colored green-and-brown plumage, a long, rounded tail, and a stout, blunt, pale yellow bill. On its brownish gray legs, the parrot waddles long distances to feeding areas, where it chews plants for their juices and digs up rhizomes to crush them with its ridged bill.

One of the major factors contributing the kakapo’s scarcity is its low reproductive rate. Female kakapos breed every 2–5 years, with young females reaching sexual maturity between age 5 and age 11, which is significantly delayed compared to the maturation rates of most parrot species.

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During the breeding season, which lasts from December to about March, males construct pathways to excavated mating arenas known as leks, where they gather in traditional spots to call and display for females. In a plate-sized depression often at the crest of a rocky knoll, the male inflates his chest like a bloated bullfrog, heaves his thorax, bobs his head, and releases a resonant boom like the sound made by blowing across the top of a large bottle. The call lasts all night and carries for half a mile (0.8 km). Females nest in holes in the ground, where they rear two or three white, pear-shaped chicks alone.

Conservation status

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has classified the kakapo as a critically endangered species since 2000. The species was feared extinct in the 1950s, a victim of competitors and predators such as rats, weasels, cats, and ferrets introduced by both Maori and European immigrants (see also extinction). In 1961 one was captured, and surveys launched by New Zealand’s Wildlife Service revealed that by 1977 some birds had still survived—all male. That year a population of about 200 was discovered on Stewart Island off the southern tip of South Island, but here the birds were threatened by feral cats. The government eventually evacuated 61 kakapo to three predator-free offshore island sanctuaries. Breeding success in the wild has been augmented by a supplementary feeding program and artificial incubation. Some 100–150 birds remain..