Kakapo baby boom

21-08-2002

Kakapo Strigops habroptilus, New Zealand's nocturnal, flightless parrot, are set for the best breeding season ever after a record 53 eggs were laid during the 2001/2002 breeding season. By late April, of the 26 fertile eggs laid, 25 chicks were still surviving, a remarkable achievement that raises the world population of Kakapo from 62 to 87.

20 of the 21 female Kakapo of breeding age laid eggs, and significantly included a female known as Hoki, the first hand-raised female to reach this age. Her one fertile egg died early, but she was given a replacement egg and is proving to be an excellent mother. Hoki has demonstrated that handrearing techniques do not affect the species's ability to mate, lay and nurture young.

Kakapo are known to breed in years when there is a heavy crop of Rimu fruit, and this year there is a bumper crop, on a scale that only happens once every 20 years, on their island sanctuary of Whenua Hou. Some intensive conservation management by the Kakapo Recovery Programme has backed up this fortuitous event. These measures include supplementary feeding of the birds and transfer of fertile eggs to females with infertile clutches, allowing fertile females to lay second clutches. Each bird is fitted with a radio transmitter and tracked, and each nest monitored by infrared camera throughout the breeding season. Warming pads are also placed over eggs and nestlings while females forage to improve survival chances, and any neglected or ill chicks are removed and hand-reared.

The Kakapo Recovery Programme is a partnership between sponsors Comalco New Zealand and the Department of Conservation (DOC), and managed through the Threatened Species Trust programme. The Trust comprises DOC, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society (BirdLife in New Zealand), the New Zealand Conservation Authority and corporate sponsor representatives.