New Zealand’s kakapo, the world’s heaviest parrot, has had its most successful breeding season ever, with 90 chicks surviving to independence, Smithsonian Magazine reports.
The flightless, nocturnal bird lives only in New Zealand and had fallen to just 51 individuals by 1995, only 20 of them female. This year 79 females nested and laid 258 eggs. Chicks are only counted once they reach 150 days old. The population now stands at around 325, a level not seen for roughly 75 years.
The boom was triggered by one of the best rimu fruit crops in decades; the trees usually fruit only every two to four years, and kakapo breed when food is plentiful. Conservationist Deidre Vercoe pointed out that the recovery programme’s early years took around 16 years to produce as many chicks as this single season. One first-time father, ten-year-old Tūterangi, sired ten of them.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine