BirdNote®: New Zealand’s Kakapo
Air Date: September 11, 2020
Islands are famously home to a huge diversity of animals found nowhere else on Earth. In New Zealand, an edemic and peculiar bird called the Kakapo is making a comeback. BirdNote’s Michael Stein reports on this one-of-a-kind big bird.
Transcript
BASCOMB: Islands are famously home to a huge diversity of endemic animals, found nowhere else on earth. Think of lemurs in Madagascar, Giant Tortoises in the Galapagos, or Kangaroos in Australia. And from New Zealand BirdNote’s Michael Stein has yet another example of an island producing a one-of-a-kind animal.
BirdNote®
New Zealand’s Kakapo
New Zealand is home to some very unusual birds—the kiwis for example. But none is more peculiar than the Kakapo. [Kakapo male call, https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/conservation/native-anima... The Kakapo is a kind of parrot, but one that doesn’t fly. At five pounds, it’s the world’s heaviest parrot. But being heavy and flightless doesn’t stop a Kakapo from getting up a tree. It uses its strong claws and beak to grip the bark and pull itself up. [Kakapo female call, https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/conservation/native-anima...
Like many parrots, Kakapos are long-lived -- up to ninety years. Still, they’re highly endangered. These odd parrots evolved in an island world that lacked terrestrial predators. But all that changed when humans and their animals arrived. Now Kakapos are mostly consigned to a conservation recovery program on small islands that are free of predators. Things are looking up though. The Kakapo population has grown 70% in the past five years. Even though there are only about 200 Kakapos out there, that’s still more than at any time in the past seventy years. The next challenge? Find more safe habitat for the growing population of these one-of-a-kind parrots.
[Kakapo male call, https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/conservation/native-anima...
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Written by Bob Sundstrom
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Sallie Bodie
Editor: Ashley Ahearn
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill
Bird sounds courtesy of New Zealand Government Department of Conservation, https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/kakapo/
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2020 BirdNote March 2020 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# kakapo-01-2020-03-18 kakapo-01
[lots of information at this site: https://www.doc.govt.nz/kakapo-recovery]
https://www.doc.govt.nz/news/media-releases/2019/kakapo-population-reach...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/phys.org/news/2015-11-rimu-berry-game-chang...
https://www.birdnote.org/show/new-zealands-kakapo
BASCOMB: For pictures hop on over to the Living on Earth website, LOE dot Org
