on dec. 14th 2005, a small government-chartered airplane (the smallest airplane that i’ve ever been on) took a total of 4 passengers to a small island off the coast of a small island off the coast of new zealand: codfish island [G] (whenua hou in maori language) is located east of steward island, which is just south of NZ’s south island.
in the 1980s all non-native predators (possums, rats, stouts, cats, …) were eradicated from the island, which is now one of new zealand’s bird sanctuaries. apart from endangered species like the kaka1, kakariki2 and the southern short-tailed bat3, it is also (and most importantly) the home of the kakapo (strigops habroptilus).
to be exact, it’s one of the two homes of the kakapo: codfish and chalky island.
the kakapo is a critically endangered parrot species that has some pretty exceptional qualities. i’ll just name a few:
- it can’t fly, and weighs up to 4kg (which makes it the heaviest parrot).
- it’s nocturnal.
- it has facial feathers like a typical owl, and “whiskers” like a cat.
- it has a sophisticated “lek” breeding system (unique in the order of parrots).
- courtship behaviour also includes “self-inflating” of the males until they look like green basketballs, then producing very low-frequency sounds (“booming”) to attract the females.
- it only breeds every few years, probably depending on rimu fruit abundance.
- it’s probably the longest-living bird overall (the oldest living kakapo, richard-henry, was captured over 30 years ago and is believed to be about 50 years old).
- and – much to its disadvantage – it doesn’t really know what to do when a predator is near, which is why there are only 86 (!) individuals left on.
i was already …”in the general area” (new zealand, that is), so i seized the chance [more...]
