The kakapo is a type of nocturnal parrot and is also called 'night parrot'. The Kakapo is a very beautiful bird but is critically endangered as of 2010. Their current population is around 122. The Kakapo's ancestors became isolated from most other parrots around 82 million years ago when New Zealand broke up from Gondwanaland.
The Kakapo is distributed on uninhabited islands throughout the southern end of New Zealand ( The Kakapo were moved there by humans). The Kakapos wings adapted and shortened when New Zealand broke off Gondwanaland because of the lack of predator's. The Kakapos diet contains berries and insects. There are many projects running to save the Kakapo including the rapping of introduced predators like stoats and feral cats.
The scientific name for the Kakapo is Strigops Habroptilus. Kakapo is the maori name for night parrot. Common name is the Kakapo.
When the female Kakapo lays he eggs she lays them in a burrow. For their burrow, the Kakapo just finds a natural hollow like an up rooted beech tree. The Kakapos main habitat is beech forest. The Kakapo only defence against predators is its sharp claws and camouflage feathers so it can't be seen, and if it is seen it has a small chance of survival by giving its predators a nasty wound. The Female Kakapo has a skinnier head then the male and she has a longer beak and tail.
In the late nineties the Kakapo population was around fifty but due to all the Kakapo programs the population has risen to a hundred and twenty-two.
Written by Patrick Dougherty, student of Fiordland College
More information about Kakapo - Kakapo Recovery Programme