Kakapo facing one of last survival chances

Press, 26 October 1989, Page 25

Kakapo facing one of last survival chances

PA Auckland New Zealand’s flightless parrot, the kakapo, is facing one of its last chances of survival. Its breeding season starts in three months and Department of Conservation staff say if the birds do not reproduce soon, they will seal their fate. In a book written by David Butler and launched by the Minister of Conservation, Mr Woollaston, Butler outlines the bird’s plight which has placed it at the top of the world’s most endangered species list, along with the giant panda and the mountain gorilla. But there are signs of hope: the department’s latest kakapo census ends before Christmas and there are indications of a successful season. So far, the five females caught are the heaviest and healthiest recorded. But the birds’ slow reproduction cycle is exacerbating their plight. Kakapo seem to breed every four years and lay

few eggs. Only three successful hatchings have been recorded since 1910 and these were eight years ago. Snark and Heather now live on Little Barrier Island, two died a few months after birth, and two have not been seen for several years. Twenty-two kakapos were transferred from Stewart Island to Little Barrier in 1982 after Little Barrier was cleared of feral cats but no chicks have yet been born. In the last two years the department has also transferred kakapos from Stewart to Codfish and Maud Islands to try to save the last few birds from the same fate as the Fiordland colony. The people working to save the kakapo are passionate.

Mr Allan Munn, a contract worker helping the Department of Conservation with its census, said: “The birds have their own personality and you feel sorry for them. They’re so

helpless. Their defence mechanism is to stay still, which is pretty dumb if you can’t fly and a cat’s after you.” , One of the kakapo’s most persistent champions, Mr Don Merton, has been spellbound by the bird for 30 years. “How can you resist a bird that will lie in your arms and almost purr as you stroke it?” The department needs $2.5 million to finance the five-year kakapo programme.