Easter eggs for world’s largest parrot
After a lapse of three years Kakapo have begun breeding again on New Zealand’s predator-free Codfish Island.
The Kakapo Strigops habroptilus has the distinction of being the world’s largest parrot, weighing up to 4kg. They are also the only flightless member of the family – a critical factor in the species’ precipitous decline following the introduction of mammalian predators such as cats. However, an intensive programme of transferring the birds onto predator-free islands by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) has successfully halted the species’ slide towards extinction.
Three chicks hatched last weekend, bringing the population of the Critically Endangered parrot back to the level it was prior to the loss of three birds to a bacterial infection in 2004. The Kakapo population is now poised on the brink of its highest levels in 25 years, with at least four more chicks expected from the 25 eggs laid this breeding season.
Good Kakapo breeding years (the last occurred in 2002) coincide with heavy crops of the native rimu fruit. 2005 hasn’t been a particularly good rimu year, but supplementary feeding of walnuts and pine conelets has been carried out by the Kakapo Recovery Team.
“We are, as yet, uncertain what sparked breeding this year, but if in fact it was the green supplementary foods, then this will represent an important break-through,” commented DOC Kakapo conservationist Don Merton.
The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society (BirdLife in New Zealand) is one of three organisations that are part of the Kakapo Recovery Programme which has worked for 12 years to save the species from extinction.
Conservation Manager Kevin Hackwell welcomed the news and commended the Department of Conservation staff and volunteers for their dedication and hard work. “We hope the Government will increase funding for DOC in the next budget so more can be done to conserve New Zealand’s 71 globally threatened bird species.”