The yellow kakapo

Press, 5 October 1984, Page 20

The yellow kakapo

One treasured zoological specimen in the Canterbury Museum is a stuffed kakapo with canary yellow feathers. As far as I am aware no other golden kakapo specimens exist in the world. In the 19605, a series of events occurred which significantly extended our knowledge of this fascinating bird. At the time the Begg brothers, Neil and Charles, were assembling information for their book, “Port Preservation.” During their researches in 1968, the Beggs let it be known that they would be interested in contacting any descendants of the Edward Bradshaw family which had lived at Cromarty — a settlement (now derelict and deserted) on the south eastern shores of Preservation Inlet (see map). The Beggs’ request for information was successful; it resulted in a meeting in June, 1968, at Invercargill with a Mr Ernest Bradshaw (81 years old at the time) who once lived at Cromarty. During this interview Mr Bradshaw happened to mention in passing how in August, 1898, he and his brother caught a yellow kakapo near Cromarty. Furthermore, he also recalled that the bird was sent to the Canterbury Museum. His account of the kakapo’s capture is recorded by the Beggs in “Port Preservation” as follows: “The Bradshaws had a fawncoloured fox terrier named Jumbo, which helped the boys in their foraging expeditions. In 1898, they made a remarkable find when hunting for kakapo just across the stream at the eastern edge of the township towards Cemetery Island.

“ ‘One day when we were searching,’ wrote Ernest Bradshaw, ‘we discovered an albino kakapo, a really beautiful bird, and my father built a large cage, and someone came from the Canterbury Museum and had it stuffed and taken away. Later, father received a cheque for £25 for it’.” The Beggs contacted the Canterbury Museum to check if the golden kakapo was still in its collections. Ron Scarlett, the Museum’s osteologist, who has an immense knowledge of the Museum’s holdings of natural history specimens, had no trouble in locating the kakapo specimen. Neil Begg then visited Christchurch and examined the bird. He mentioned to Mr Scarlett how he had met the person who was instrumental in capturing the yellow kakapo. Neil Begg’s information was of tremendous interest. For 70 years the only information on the background of the specimen was that it was a male collected in 1898 from Preservation Inlet. It was also known that the kakapo formed part of Buller’s collection of birds, some

of which were bought from his widow by Dr Ben Moorhouse, who, early this century, gave them to the Canterbury Museum. When one considers that almost 20 years elapsed before the Museum obtained the yellow kakapo skin, and that Buller was based in Wellington, it seems likely, according to Mr Scarlett, that the skin was prepared by a representative from the Colonial Museum, Wellington — now the National Museum. The story of the yellow kakapo therefore demonstrates how researchers like the Begg brothers can significantly extend our knowledge of Museum items. Unfortunately, the kakapo today, •even in its usual moss-green plumage, is a rare sight in the field. This nocturnal parrot is one of New Zealand’s most endangered birds. The chances of seeing a live yellow specimen no- or even for many, many years to come is — unless there is a major breakthrough in the Wildlife Service’s kakapo conservation programme — extremely remote.

By

GEOFFREY TUNNICLIFFE