Saving the World's Largest Parrot

It's as plump as a goose, has the face of an owl and waddles like a duck. It sleeps in the day and is active at night. And it can climb just about anything but can't fly anywhere.  No wonder people call the kakapo the strangest parrot on Earth.

Once found in large numbers all over New Zealand, kakapo (pronounced caw-caw-poe) have been perched on the edge of disappearing for more than a century. What humans started, by reducing the birds' habitat and food supply, predators such as cats, rats and weasel-like stoats nearly finished.  As of 1977, trackers counted just 18 kakapo left in the entire country - all of them males. The end seemed in sight.

Then something amazing happened. A previously unknown kakapo population was found. It included the first females seen in more than 60 years. This exciting discovery stirred government-led efforts to help the parrots by moving them to three small, predator-free islands.

"As the largest parrot on Earth, (they are) quite the sight in person," says Wes Sechrest of Global Wildlife Conservation, which is helping the kakapo recovery program. "They have a teddy-bear quality to them with their soft feathers, wide eyes and owl-like expressions."

Recovery team members watch and track the parrots using nest cameras, infrared beams, microchips and radio transmitters in small "backpacks" fitted snugly under the birds' wings.  Individual feeding stations supply extra pellet food and clean water. The stations have electronic scales to check weight and are programmed to open only for the target bird, automatically locking if a parrot wearing the "wrong" transmitter tries to poach from another parrot's station.

Kakapo breed when rimu and other trees bear lots of fruit to eat. Some years that doesn't happen, which means no breeding.  If nature fails, however, scientists can try assisted (artificial) breeding. 

Eggs are often removed from the nest and put in incubators.   In their place, team members leave 3-D-printed "smart eggs" that make noise and get the moms ready to raise their chicks once they hatch and are brought back.

Andrew Digby, the recovery team's science adviser, recalled one female that left her nest with a fake egg in it and returned to find a fluffy chick. She had never seen a chick before and was "very clumsy" with it, he said, "dragging it upside down around the nest. I was worried she'd kill it. But fortunately she tucked it under her, and an hour later began to feed it.

Every new chick is celebrated. A few years ago, when a female accidentally crushed her egg, team members patched it with tape and glue. Days later, they watched excitedly as the first kakapo chick in three years hatched.

Today the recovery program counts 147 adult birds, nearly triple the number since its start in 1995. And that number will soon grow, as the current breeding season is expected to set a record and add 30 to 50 healthy chicks.