Celebrity on kakapo’s trail

Press, 25 February 1989, Page 6

Celebrity on kakapo’s trail

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington The few specimens of New Zealand’s rarest and most endangered bird — the kakapo or giant flightless parrot — are entertaining a famous visitor. He is Douglas Adams, author of “The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Mr Adams and a zoologist, Dr Mark Carwardine, are heading for Codfish Island off the south-west coast of Stewart Island to study the population liberated there after capture on Stewart Island and in

Fiordland. Codfish Island has none of the feral cats that are threatening the kakapo with extinction in its natural habitat. The two men are working on a project which has taken them to Indonesia to look for komoda dragons, to Mauritius to seek the Rodrigues fruit bat, to China to seek Yangtze River dolphins, and to Chile to look for Juan Fernandez fur seals. They also plan to look for white rhinos in Zaire. Mr Adams is helping prepare a book and series of seven 30-minute

radio programmes for the 8.8. C. Each chapter and programme will tell the story of a miniexpedition in search of a rare and endangered species. The aim is to reach an audience that would not normally be interested in wildlife and conservation. Mr Adams and Dr Carwardine have already visited the kakapo colony on Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Golf and will visit Kapiti Island this week-end. Mr Adams’ visit is being coordinated by the Conservation Department.