Kākāpō: The chonky parrot that can live almost 100 years
Rapid facts
Name: Kākāpō (Habroptila strigops), also known as the owl parrot
Where he lives: Off the coast of New Zealand on the cod, the Maud and Little Barrier Islands
What he eats: Kākāpō are vegetarian. Their diet varies according to the seasons and includes tubers, fruits, seeds, buds of leaves, young plants of plants, mushrooms and foam.
The first thing you will notice about Kākāpō – a type of large flight parrot found only in New Zealand – is how round they are.
They have heads and round bodies with ties, owl -shaped faces and robust legs, and they are the greatest of all modern parrots; Males measure up to 25 inches (64 centimeters) long and can weigh almost 9 pounds (4 kilograms). Kākāpō are also One of the longest birds around the world, estimated at 90 years.
The name “Kākāpō” means “night parrot” in the Maori language, a reference to the night habits of birds. Although Kākāpō cannot fly, they can walk over long distances and are agile climbers, climbing and jumping trees using their shortened wings for balance.
When they feel the danger, Kākāpō freezes, and their emerald green plumage accounts for the birds almost invisible in the feuilllu forest. The feathers of the male kākāp have a distinctive smell that scientists have described as “sweet and vegetative“And this powerful scent can play a role in the success of mating of men.
Kākāpō mating is also unique because they are the only species of parrot to present a behavior called Lekking. The males create a kind of scene, shaping a shallow depression in the shape of a bowl in the ground. They then squat in their bowl and call women using two different sounds: a series of low frequency “booms” that look like a snorkel, punctuated by a acute “cat”. The males can explode and hunt for eight hours on a section, continuing every evening for two or three months.
However, in the absence of female attention, some men are known to direct their affections elsewhere. In 1990, the author Douglas Adams wrote on an unusual meeting with a Kākāpō in love, describing him in his book “Last chance to see“(Penguin Random House, 1992). The incident took place while Adams recorded a segment for A BBC radio program on endangered species.
“When one of the rangers working in an area where the Kākāpōs were booming left his hat on the ground,” wrote Adams, “he returned later to find a kākāpō trying to delight him.”
Scientists who work with kākāpōs have even built a rubber “ejaculation helmet“To accommodate a Kākāpō called Sirocco, who was known to have tried to mate with people’s heads. The helmet had a random surface, suitable for sperm collection for use in artificial insemination.
To watch
Birds reproduce once every two to four years, when local rimu produce an abundant harvest of berries. These fruits are rich in calcium and vitamin D, essential nutrients for eggs laying and for nourishing growing chicks.
Kākāpō prospered for tens of millions of years across New Zealand, where they had no natural predators. But with the arrival of Polynesians about 700 years ago, the number of birds began to drop. Their decline accelerated when Europeans colonized New Zealand in the early 1800s. The deforestation and introduction of mammalian predators, such as rats, cats and stoas, brought Kākāpō to the edge of extinction, and in the 1900s, they had almost disappeared.
But in the 1970s, environmentalists discovered a reproductive population of around 200 birds. For decades, they worked to protect the kākāpō and secure their future, moving them to the three islands where they live today (and where all invasive carnivores have since been eradicated). Currently, there are around 242 kākāpō in the wild, and they are recognized as in danger criticizing with a high risk of extinction.
