he looks so happy!!

I really cannot say how relieved I am to be able to post this as a positive news story, because when the outbreak first started it looked like it might be the end of the kakapo.

This year 82 kakapo chicks hatched, a record-breaking number that was a massive victory for a species with only 142 living adults. Then, in what seemed a cruel twist of fate, the kakapo population was struck with a devastating aspergillosis outbreak. 

In the end, the disease only killed two adults and five chicks. Thirteen birds remain sick but are recovering with treatment.

This could have been so, so much worse, and the reason it wasn’t was due to excellent adaptive management of the developing situation by Kakapo Recovery staff as well as Auckland Zoo (and Wildbase Recovery Hospital and Dunedin Wildlife Hospital) staff going above and beyond their typical duties to offer intense, round the clock care to sick birds.

When conservationists posted on social media that their regular budget was not prepared to handle this unforeseen tragedy, members of the public donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to help via crowdfunding.

“The outpouring of support struck Digby (head of Kakapo Recovery), who recalls how a 9-year-old in the United States asked their friends to donate to the cause in lieu of bringing birthday presents to their party. ‘Here’s a child who’s probably never going to see a Kākāpō in their life,’ he says, ‘and they care about them enough to give up all their birthday presents.’“

This year will still likely see a net increase in the wild kakapo population. Against all odds, the big, green, flightless parrots are going to be ok.

In the breeding season, the male kākāpō can inflate like a balloon and emit a low ‘sonic’ boom which, in mountainous terrain, can be heard up to five kilometres away.