THE KAKAPO
Ok so we are not going to have a Kakapo up for adoption, but it’s a parrot we really thought we should educate about as its an amazing bird.
It’s the heaviest parrot in the world
It is the only flightless parrot
They has a life expectancy of around 90 years
It is a nocturnal bird
It’s possibly the oldest living bird
The mating call that can travel kilometers called the ‘boom’
They are one of the rarest parrots in the world, with only 153 individuals remaining.
It is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN and Nationally critical on the New Zeland Threat Classification System.
They are endemic to New Zealand and every year many people from around the world – including dozens of hard working volunteers – give their time and energy trying to save the kākāpō from the brink of extinction.
Kākāpō used to be one of the most common birds in New Zealand, found across almost the entire country. Hunting, habitat loss and the introduction of mammalian predators lead to a severe decline in the population. By 1995 there were only 51 kākāpō known to survive.
The Kākāpō Recovery Programme has since been working to protect and grow this population. All kākāpō are now intensively managed on offshore, predator-free islands.
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