New Zealand’s rare kakapo parrot fighting back from brink of extinction after ‘successful breeding season’
They were thought to be extinct in the 1970s until a few remnant populations were found in the wild.
The world’s rarest parrot has enjoyed a bumper breeding season in New Zealand, raising hopes it can eventually be reintroduced to its native Fiordland, conservationists said on Friday.
The kakapo, a plump green parrot that nests on the ground, was once thought extinct but its numbers have slowly increased to 125 birds thanks to an intensive conservation programme dating back decades.
The hard work paid off spectacularly this year as 36 chicks hatched and survived during breeding season, well up on the previous record of 22 in 2009.
“It’s the most successful breeding season since we started in 1995 and I think that’s cause for international celebration,” Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said.
“It’s very rare that you have the opportunity to bring back a precious taonga [treasure] species from teetering on the very edge of extinction, that’s what we’ve managed to do.”
The kakapo was once one of New Zealand’s most common birds, with an early European explorer reporting they could be shaken from bushes like apples. But the flightless and slow moving species proved easy pickings for introduced pests such as rats, stoats and cats.
