What's up doc - Kakapo chicks hatching - 2 Apr
The eagerly-awaited arrival of some of New Zealand's most precious babies has begun!
Kakapo are one of New Zealand's most vulnerable species, with
just 86 birds (now 91 with the hatching of five chicks over
the past few days) living on two well-protected offshore islands.
They are also notoriously slow breeders. Sadly, they used to be
found all over New Zealand, but due to hunting by people and
predation by stoats and other baddies their numbers crashed to just
53 birds in the 1990s.
Kakapo can live for a very very long time - and Richard Henry, who
is the last kakapo from the Fiordland population is thought to be
up to 100 years old!
(all of the kakapo have individual names).
Now, the remaining kakapo live on predator-free offshore
islands, such as Whenua Hou (or Codfish Island), near Stewart
Island.
Kakapo don't breed every year like other birds, but instead only
breed when the rimu trees fruit (every three to four years).
This means their recovery is painstakingly slow.
Kakapo started laying eggs earlier this year, and laid 10 eggs
in total. There are expected to be seven chicks this season if all
goes well.
Kakapo mating is different from all other birds. The males create
an elaborate system of 'tracks' and 'bowls' in the bush, and they
lure females onto their tracks, by sitting in their bowls and
'booming' (like a bullfrog, by puffing out their chests and making
a low frequency boom sound - which is broadcast for kilometres by
the shape of their bowl).
The great news about this year's breeding season is that there was
100% fertility of the eggs. In the past, there has been very low
fertility because the kakapo population is so small, there is a
risk of inbreeding.
The other great news is that two of the younger females, Rakiura
and Aparima, bred for the first time - and they're only six years
old. Previously the youngest breeders have been nine years
old. Another 'Mum', is the experienced Lisa, who is 26.
The kakapo recovery project is recognised internationally for its
innovative ways of protecting kakapo. When the birds breed,
volunteers from around NZ go to Whenua Hou, and spend their nights
in a cramped tent near a nest, where they keep a watchful eye
(through a video monitor) of the chicks when the mother goes off to
feed at night. If the eggs or chicks are too cold, the
nestminders put a wee heat pad underneath them to keep them warm
until the mother returns. These nestminders are crucial to the
success of the programme, as well as volunteers who traipse all
over the island (which, having visited there myself, is VERY steep
and muddy), putting out supplementary food for the kakapo to give
them heaps of energy for breeding and looking after their
chicks.
As well as sleeping in a tent, being woken all hours of the night
and working in rough weather, the volunteers live communally, carry
heavy nest monitoring equipment and are without many modern day
comforts.
Kakapo are sponsored by Rio Tinto, who run the Aluminium smelter in
Bluff, and smelter workers have been busy trekking around the
island volunteering to protect kakapo too.
Although people can't visit kakapo at Whenua Hou, there are regular
updates from the kakapo rangers on the island on the kakapo
recovery website, which is proving popular, and attracting hits
from as far afield as Kazakstahn!
Weblink:
www.kakaporecovery.org.nz
Facts about Kakapo:
- It is the heaviest parrot in the world. Males can weigh over two kilograms.
- A bird can range several kilometres in one night.
- Although it cannot fly, (it's the only parrot that can't) the kakapo is good at climbing trees.
- The birds are herbivores and eat variety of foods such as roots, leaves and fruit
- Kakapo once ranged from near sea level to high in the mountains.
- Possibly as defence against its ancient predator - the giant eagle - the kakapo became nocturnal and learned to remain still ('freeze') at times of danger.
- All the remaining birds have been given names
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 translocations of all the remaining kakapo, they are now managed by the Department of Conservation on two offshore islands: Whenua Hou (Codfish Island) near Stewart Island, and Anchor Island in Fiordland.
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.
More information:
- The Kakapo Recovery Programme is a partnership between Department of Conservation, The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand (Inc) and Rio Tinto Alcan (NZ) Ltd (formerly Comalco New Zealand Ltd). This partnership was established in 1990.
- Check out www.kakapo.org.nz for more information
- Kakapo means "night parrot"
- One of the most striking characteristics of Kakapo is their pleasant and powerful odour, which has been variously described as musky, honey-like or fruity
- It's waddling gait, its curiosity, wide range of calls, and its
comic antics meant that, in historic times, the kakapo was
occasionally kept as a pet by early settlers.
