The Kakapo
The Kakapo (Maori for 'night parrot'), the
emblem for this publisher, is the world's only flightless parrot
and is native to just New Zealand. Weighing up to 3.5 kilograms
(8 lbs) the kakapo is also the world's heaviest parrot. This largely
nocturnal bird has been on the verge of extinction for nearly two
hundred years and today only 125 kakapo exist. As a flightless bird
it has been threatened most by mammals and with the arrival of man,
who introduced rats (kiore) and dogs (kuri) to New Zealand, its
numbers dramatically declined. The conservation programme for the
birds, that has become the Kakapo Recovery Plan, has seen the relocation
of the kakapo to just two islands - Codfish (Whenua Hou) and Anchor Island (Pukenui). The kakapo requires a
large habitat area for its home-range and on the islands the birds
are under protection with Department of Conservation staff making
vast efforts to breed chicks in captivity and keep the kakapo free
from predators.
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