The Kakapo

Booming | Names | Resources

If there was a "Guiness Book of Bird Records" the kakapo would be a star!

The Kakapo is the ...

• Heaviest parrot in the world.
• Only flightless parrot.
• Only nocturnal parrot.
• Only parrot where the male has inflatable thoracic sacs.
• Only parrot to have a lek mating system and New Zealand's only lek bird... and...
• The kakapo is only found in New Zealand!

The Kakapo - a very special bird

• It has no close relatives in the world.
• The kakapo does not fly but is a good climber and uses its wings for balancing.
• The kakapo lives to a mighty age for a bird, getting to over 60 years old.
• Kakapo feathers are very soft and moss-green in colour, with some black on its back and yellow-green feathers on its belly.
• The kakapo is a good colour for hiding, but enemies can often find them because of the kakapos strong smell.
• Kakapo are strict vegetarians, and eat the fruit of rimu, kahikatea and Dacrydium intermedium, Mingimingi (Cyathodes) and Coriaria sarmentosa. They eat the seeds of manuka and leatherwood (Olearia colensoi). They eat the shoots of Dracophyllum. In summer and autumn they drink rata nectar, and in winter they eat sun orchid bulbs.

Some birds tweet but male kakapo BOOM!   Learn about the kakapo booming

Kakapo in danger...
Before people arrived in New Zealand the kakapo lived a happy existence throughout the country.

But when people arrived it was bad for the kakapo. People hunted the kakapo, cleared the forests and brought new enemies.

• The long breeding season of the kakapo leaves them vulnerable to predators.
• The kakapo only breed when trees like the rimu and kahikatea are laden with fruit, which can mean the kakapo does not nest every year.
• Kakapo have a strong scent - which make them easy for predators to find.
• The mother kakapo has to leave her chicks alone while she is gathering food, which leaves the chicks alone and vulnerable to enemies.
• Possums eat the same food as the kakapo, so the kakapo would go hungry if there were possums around.

Is

anyone helping

the

kakapo?

The Department of Conservation (DOC) staff care for the kakapo and are working to save them from extinction.

All kakapo live on New Zealand's off-shore islands, where there are no predators - like possums, rats and stoats. The kakapo were moved there by DOC staff to protect them.

All the kakapo have names - click here to learn them.

Non-government environment groups, such as Forest and Bird, keep encouraging the government to invest money to help save our endangered species from extinction.

The kakapo information was updated in October 2002.