Kakapo Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

The Kakapo (Maori for night parrot), Strigops habroptilus ("owl-faced soft feathers"), is a species of parrot endemic to New Zealand. It is notable for being the world's only flightless parrot, the heaviest parrot, and the only parrot to have a lek breeding system. It is also the only flightless lek bird and is possibly the world's longest-lived bird. It is the only species in the genus Strigops and subfamily Strigopinae.

Kakapo are critically endangered, with only 83 living individuals known, all of whom are named. Prehistorically, the ancestral Kakapo migrated to the islands of New Zealand and, in the absence of mammalian predators, it lost the ability to fly. With European and Polynesian colonization and the introduction of predators such as cats, rats, and stoats, almost all Kakapo were wiped out. In 1995, there were only 50 known surviving individuals.

Physical characteristics

All remaining Kakapo have moss-green feathers barred with black on the back, blending well with native vegetation. As the feathers do not need the strength and stiffness required for flight, they are exceptionally soft, giving rise to the species name habroptilus. Their underbellies, necks, and faces are yellowish with great variability between individuals. It is known from museum specimens that some birds had completely yellow coloring. Kakapo have a facial disc of fine feathers, resembling the face of an owl; thus early European settlers called it the owl parrot. Delicate "whiskers" surround their beaks, which they use to sense the ground as they walk with their heads lowered. The ends of their tail feathers often become worn from being continually dragged on the ground.

Kakapo are large, rotund parrots: males measure up to 60 cm and weigh between 3 and 4 kg at maturity. Kakapo are unable to fly, having short wings for their size and lacking the pronounced keel bone (sternum) that anchors the flight muscles of other birds. They do use their wings for balance, support, and to break their falls when leaping from trees. Unlike other land birds, the Kakapo can accumulate large amounts of body fat to store energy.

Kakapo's beaks are specially adapted for grinding their food very finely. For this reason, they have very small gizzards compared to other birds of their size. Kakapo feet are large, scaly and, as in all parrots, zygodactyl (two toes face forward and two backward). They have pronounced claws that are particularly useful for climbing.

One of the most striking characteristics of Kakapo is their pleasant and powerful odor. It has been variously described as like flowers and honey, an air freshener, or the inside of an antique violin case. The smell has often lead predators right to the relatively defenseless Kakapo.

Behavior

Kakapo are primarily nocturnal, roosting under cover in trees or on the ground during the day and roving their territories at night. Though the Kakapo cannot fly, they are excellent climbers, ascending to the crowns of the tallest trees. They have also been known to "parachute" from heights by spreading their wings, floating gently to the forest floor. Having lost the ability to fly, Kakapo have developed very strong legs. In the course of a night's feeding they may walk several kilometers and climb 300 meters up hills and down again. Kakapo are able to run at a fair speed, but cannot sustain their speed for long distances.

Kakapo are generally herbivorous, eating a wide variety of native plants, seeds, fruits, and pollens. They are particularly fond of the fruit of the rimu tree, and will feed on it exclusively during seasons when it is abundant. Kakapo have a distinctive habit of grabbing a leaf or frond with a foot and stripping the nutritious parts of the plant out with their beaks, leaving a ball of indigestible fiber, similar to the way humans eat only the tender parts of artichokes. The little clumps of plant fibers are a distinctive sign of the presence of Kakapo. Kakapo have also been observed to occasionally eat insects and other invertebrates (Climo & Ballance, 1997).

Kakapo are naturally curious, and though they live solitary lives in remote places, they have been known to enjoy the occasional company of humans. Conservation staff and volunteers have interacted extensively with some birds, and they are known to have distinct, and often charming, personalities.

Like many parrots, Kakapo have a wide range of calls used for various purposes. In addition to the "booms" and "chings" of their mating calls, they are often known to "skraark" to announce their location to other birds.

One behavior that has not recently served Kakapo well is their reaction to a predator or threat. When Kakapo feel threatened, they simply freeze, hoping to blend in with the vegetation that they so resemble. This was a good strategy to foil their main native predator, the giant eagle Harpagornis, but does not protect them from the newer predators who rely on their excellent senses of smell.

Breeding

Kakapo are the only parrots in the world that have a lek breeding system. Males loosely gather together in an arena or "lek" and compete with each other to attract females to mate. Females appear at the lek and watch the males' displays. They choose a mate based on the quality of his display; they are not pursued by the males in any overt way. No pair bond is formed and males and females meet only to mate.

During the courting season, males leave their usual territories for hilltops and ridges where they each establish their own mating courts. These leks can be up to 7km from a Kakapo's usual territory and are an average of 50 m apart within the lek arena. Males remain in the region of their court throughout the courting season. At the start of the breeding season males will fight to try to secure the best courts. They confront each other with raised feathers, spread wings, open beaks, raised claws and loud screeching and growling. Fighting may leave birds with injuries.

Each court consists of a series of bowl-like depressions dug in the ground by the male, up to 10 cm deep and long enough to fit the half-metre length of the bird. Bowls are often created next to rock faces, banks or tree trunks to help reflect sound. Each male’s bowls are connected by a network of trails or tracks (in the New Zealand idiom) which may extend 50 m along a ridge or 20 m in diameter around a hilltop. Males meticulously clear their bowls and tracks of debris. One way researchers check whether bowls are visited at night is to place a few twigs in the bowl, knowing that if the male visits overnight he will pick it up in his beak and toss it away.

To attract females, males make loud, low-frequency booming calls from their bowls by inflating a thoracic sac. They start with low grunts increasing in volume as the sac inflates. After a sequence of about 20 loud booms the volume drops off. The male Kakapo then stands up for a short while before again lowering his head, inflating his chest and starting another sequence of booms. The booms can be heard for at least one km on a still night and wind can carry the sound at least five km. Males boom for an average of eight hours a night; each male may produce thousands of booms in this time. This may continue every night for three or four months during which time the male may lose half his body weight. Each male moves around the bowls in his court so that the booms are sent out in different directions.

Females are attracted by the booms of the competing males and may also need to walk several kilometers from their territories to the arena. There a female enters the court of one of the males. The male then performs a display in which he will rock from side to side and make clicking noises with his beak. He will turn his back to the female, spread his wings in display and walk backwards towards her. Little is known about copulation but it is believed to be brief. Males apparently become very sexually excited and will attempt to copulate with objects other than female Kakapo. They have been observed attempting to copulate with a fallen tree branch and have been photographed attempting to copulate with a rolled-up sweater placed in their bowl. They have also climbed up people’s clothing onto their shoulders, lowered their wings on each side of the head, pressed their tail down, panted and swivelled from side to side, apparently attempting to copulate with the back of the head (Butler, 1989, pp. 40, 42). Once the birds have mated, the female returns to her home territory to lay eggs and raise the chicks. The male continues booming in the hope of attracting another female.

Female Kakapo lay between one and four eggs per breeding cycle. They nest on the ground under the cover of plants or in cavities such as hollow tree trunks. They incubate the eggs faithfully, but are forced to leave them every night in search of food. Eggs have been known to be eaten by predators or freeze to death in the mother's absence. Kakapo eggs usually hatch within 30 days, bearing fluffy gray chicks that are quite helpless. The young chicks are just as vulnerable to predators as the eggs, and young have been killed by many of the same predators that attack adults. Chicks fledge and leave the nest at about 10 to 12 weeks of age. As they gain greater independence, their mothers may feed them sporadically for up to 6 months.

Since Kakapo are quite long-lived, they tend to enjoy an adolescence before beginning breeding. Males do not start to boom until about 5 years of age. Females do not seek out males until they are between 9 and 11 years. Though this is quite a long delay before they start reproduction, Kakapo are thought to live at least 60 years, leaving plenty of time to perpetuate the species.

Kakapo do not breed every year and have one of the lowest rates of reproduction among birds. Breeding occurs only in years when trees mast (fruit heavily), providing a plentiful food supply. Rimu mast occurs only every three to five years, so in rimu-dominant forest such as on Codfish Island (Whenuahou), Kakapo breeding occurs as infrequently.

Recently, concerned humans have intervened heavily in the breeding of the Kakapo in hopes to preserve the species and maximize their genetic diversity. Birds are moved between islands both to keep them safe and to encourage them to mate with several different individuals over the course of their lives. Females are given nutritional supplementation at personal "feeding stations" in the hope that they will be able to produce young every year, rather than just in mast years. Sometimes, chicks are removed from their mothers to encourage the laying of a second brood. Older females can function as "surrogate mothers" and have successfully raised chicks to adulthood.

Conservators employ many methods and devices to monitor the Kakapo's nests. Many faithfully watch over their charges with closed-circuit cameras, while others use electronic-eye "doorbells" to alert them to when the mother Kakapo leaves the nest at night to forage. At that time, staff swoop into action and cover the eggs with a heating pad to keep them warm. Nests are also sprinkled with flea powder after one mother accidentally crushed an egg while scratching.

One bird is particularly important to the genetic diversity of the species. Richard Henry is the only known Kakapo from the mainland population, the others being descended from protected populations originating on the small islands. Interestingly, he has a more yellow coloration than the other Kakapo and seems to boom in a different "dialect" than the others. Fortunately, he seems to be popular with the female birds.

Habitat

While the Kakapo once ranged throughout the three main islands of New Zealand, all the known remaining birds have been relocated to two small islands - Chalky Island (Te Kakahu o Tamatea) and Codfish Island (map) - for their protection and management. They once lived in a wide variety of habitats including tussocklands, scrublands, and alpine herb fields from coastal to alpine areas. They also inhabited a variety of forests including those dominated by podocarps (rimu, matai, kahikatea, totara), beeches, tawa and rata. They particularly favored forest margins and areas of regenerating forest for the wider variety of vegetation in a compact area.

Threats

All known living Kakapo are kept on islands free of mammalian predators. Stoats, ferrets, cats and dogs are capable of killing adult Kakapo. Possumss and all three species of rat present in New Zealand will eat the eggs and young Kakapo. They also compete with Kakapo for food and occupy potential nesting sites. The native weka was eradicated from Codfish Island (to which it had been introduced) because it also posed a threat to Kakapo eggs, as it did to nesting seabirds. Islands such as Maud Island which are within a mile of stoat-inhabited land are at risk of reinvasion by stoats which are able to swim that far, so constant monitoring is required.

Other browsing animals, such as introduced deer, also compete with Kakapo for food and have caused the extinction of some preferred plant species.

Both Maori and Europeans hunted Kakapo in the past but the birds are now totally protected by law.

The ancestors of the Kakapo migrated to the islands of New Zealand millions of years ago. It is hypothesized that when they arrived, they were much more similar to the smaller, lighter parrots of the rest of the world. Over time, they became larger, heavier, and lost the ability to fly. Interestingly, the only mammals native to New Zealand are three species of small bats, and it seems that birds have adapted to fill the niches that mammals occupy in other parts of the world. Before the arrival of humans, Kakapo were wildly successful; it is hypothesized that there were millions alive at any one time.

The first major threat to Kakapo came with the arrival of humans about a thousand years ago. Maori settlers from Polynesia hunted the Kakapo for food and for their skins and feathers, which were made into luxurious capes. They also used the dried heads as ear ornaments. With its flightlessness, strong scent and habit of freezing in the face of danger, the Kakapo was easy prey for Maori and the dogs they brought to the islands. Their eggs and chicks were also predated by the Polynesian Rat or kiore which Maori had also brought to New Zealand. Furthermore the deliberate clearing of vegetation by Maori reduced the habitable range for Kakapo. Kakapo were extinct in many parts of the islands by the time Europeans arrived.

From the 1840s European settlers cleared huge amounts of land for farming and grazing, further jeopardizing the Kakapo and their habitat. They also brought more mammalian predators including cats, bigger species of rats and more dogs, all of which killed either adult or young Kakapo. Europeans knew little of the Kakapo until George Gray of the British Museum described it from a skin in 1845. Like Maori, early European explorers and their dogs fed on Kakapo. In the late 1800s, Kakapo became well known as a scientific curiosity, and thousands were captured or killed for zoos, museums and collectors. Most captured specimens died within months.

In the 1880s mustelids (stoats, ferrets and weasels) were released in large numbers in New Zealand in an attempt to reduce rabbit numbers. They also preyed heavily on many native species including the Kakapo. By the 1920s, Kakapo had become extinct on the North Island and their numbers were decreasing dramatically on the South Island. Eventually, they became too scarce to be a viable food source for humans, but they were still being hunted by predators.

Conservation

The first attempt at conservation of Kakapo was made in 1894 by conservationist Richard Henry (namesake of the famous Kakapo). He convinced the government to help move several hundred Kakapo to Resolution Island in Fiordland, which was then free of predators. Sadly, the entire population was destroyed within 6 years when stoats swam to and colonized the island.

Unfortunately, world events superseded the conservation efforts during the World Wars and the Great Depression. While most people's attention was understandably elsewhere, the Kakapo population continued to decline. In the 1950s, the New Zealand Wildlife Service began sending regular expeditions to search for Kakapo, mostly in the rugged Fiordland and northwest Nelson regions. From 1949 until 1973, only six Kakapo were found on all the expeditions. All were males, and most died quickly in captivity.

By 1974, no live Kakapo were known to exist. Things did not seem much better when 18 males were found in 1977: there seemed to be no female Kakapo alive. The situation brightened considerably later that year when 200 Kakapo were found living on Stewart Island/Rakiura, but that population was declining quickly due to the predation of feral cats. The Steward Island birds and their descendants now comprise the vast majority of living Kakapo. Only one bird from the mainland, Richard Henry, is known to have survived.

The Kakapo Recovery Programme currently manages the surviving Kakapo and oversees their breeding. Their team has developed strategies for feeding the Kakapo, checking their health, moving birds between predator-free islands, and minding unprotected eggs and nestlings. Some young Kakapo have even been hand-reared to adulthood and released. Though the future looks brighter, Kakapo are in an extremely perilous position, and the death of even a few birds could jeopardize the population.

In July 2004, 18 young Kakapo were moved from Codfish Island to Chalky Island. Three females died three to five days after the translocation, reducing the number of living birds from 86 to 83. The cause of death was septicemia due to erysipelas (infection by the bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae). The remaining translocated birds are being vaccinated against Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae infection and treated with antibiotics.

Individuals

References

• Kakapo Recovery Programme
• The Fabulous Kakapo Parrot
• The Kiwi Conservation Club
• New Zealand Department of Conservation Kakapo Page

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