Kakapo

The kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), sometimes known as the owl parrot, is a big, flightless, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot of the superfamily Strigopoidea that is native to New Zealand.

It features yellow-green plumage with fine blotches, a pronounced face disc, a huge grey beak, large feet, short legs, and short wings and tail. It is the only parrot with a polygynous lek breeding system and is the world's only flightless parrot. It is also the world's heaviest parrot, nocturnal, herbivorous, noticeably sexually dimorphic in body size, has a poor basal metabolic rate, and no male parental care. Its morphology represents the island syndrome that has evolved in birds on oceanic islands with very few predators and sufficient food: a typically robust physique at the price of flight ability, leading to reduced wing muscles and a lessened keel on the sternum.

[Image will be Uploaded Soon]

The kakapo bird has been historically significant to Mori, New Zealand's indigenous people, emerging in numerous of their traditional legends and folklore; moreover, it was also strongly hunted and being used as a resource by Mori, both for its meat as a source of food and for its feathers, that had been used to produce highly valuable items of clothing. Kakapo have also been kept as pets on occasion. 

The kakapo is highly endangered; there are only 202 living adults, all of whom have been identified and tagged, and they are limited to four small islands off the coast of New Zealand which have remained free of predators. During British colonisation, predators including cats, ferrets, rats, and stoats were introduced, nearly eradicating the kakapo. Conservation efforts started in the 1890s, but were not very effective until the Kakapo Recovery Programme was implemented in 1995. The majority of kakapo are housed on two predator-free islands, Codfish / Whenua Hou and Anchor, where they have been regularly watched, and a third island, Little Barrier / Hauturu Island, has been tested as a third home for the species.

Description:

The kakapo is a rotund, big parrot. Adults range in length from 58 to 64 cm (23 to 25 in) and weigh between 0.95 and 4 kg (2 to 9 lb) when fully grown. Males are significantly larger than females. In one study, 28 guys weighed an average of 2 kg (4.4 lb), while 39 males weighed an average of 2.06 kg (4.5 lb). In the very same studies, 28 girls weighed an average of 1.5 kg (3.3 lb), while 18 females weighed an average of 1.28 kg (2.8 lb). Kakapo seem to be the heaviest surviving parrot species, weighing around 400 g (14 oz) more than the hyacinth macaw, the largest flying parrot.

The kakapo is unable to fly due to its small wings and absence of a keel on the sternum (breastbone), which is where typical birds' flight muscles attach. When leaping from trees, it employs its wings for balance and to soften its fall. The kakapo, unlike so many other terrestrial birds, may store a lot of body fat.

The kakapo's upper parts possess yellowish moss-green feathers that are barred or mottled with black or dark brownish grey to blend in with the surrounding foliage. Individuals can have wildly different degrees of mottling, colour tone, and intensity - museum specimens demonstrate that certain birds were entirely yellow. The breast and flanks are a yellowish-green with yellow streaks. The belly, neck, undertail, and face are mostly yellowish with pale green streaks and brownish-grey mottling. The feathers are unusually soft since they do not need the strength and rigidity needed for flying, earning them the specific epithet habroptilus.

The kakapo parrot has a prominent facial disc of fine feathers that resembles the face of an owl, earning it the nickname "owl parrot" by early European immigrants. The beak is ringed with fine feathers that resemble vibrissae or "whiskers," which may be used by kakapo to sense the ground as they move with their heads lowered, however there is no proof for this. The mandible is a variety of colours, usually ivory with a bluish-grey top section. The eyes are a deep brown colour. Kakapo feet are big, scaly, and zygodactyl, like in all parrots. Climbing is made easier because of the prominent claws. The tips of the tail feathers are frequently worn down as a result of being dragged on the floor.

Internal Anatomy

The skeleton of the kakapo varies from that of other parrots in various ways related to its inability to fly. To begin with, its relative wing kakapo size is the smallest of any parrot. Its wing feathers are smaller, roundeder, and less asymmetrical, with fewer distal barbules to keep the feathers collective. A low, vestigial keel and a truncated spina externa characterise the sternum. The furcula, like those of various flightless birds and certain flighted parrots, is made up of two clavicles that are in touch with each coracoid. The angle between the coracoid and the sternum is expanded, as it is in other flightless birds. The pelvis of the kakapo seems larger than that of other parrots.

Flightlessness affects the kakapo's pectoral muscles as well. The pectoral and supracoracoideus muscles have a significant reduction in size. There is no noticeable muscle belly on the propatagialis tendo longus. The tendon of the sternocoracoideus is present. The huge crop is related via a broad cucularis capitis clavicularis muscle.

Breeding

The kakapo seems to be the world's only flightless parrot species, as well as the only flightless bird with a lek breeding system. Males congregate in an arena and fight with one another for the attention of females. Females pay attention to the males while they "lek," or exhibit. They chose a mate depending on the quality of his show and are not actively chased by males. Males and females just interact to mate; no pair connection is formed.

Males leave their home areas for hilltops and ridges during the courting season, wherein they form their personal mating courts. Within the lek arena, such leks could be approximately to 5 kilometres (3 miles) from a kakapo's regular region and are an estimate of 50 metres (160 feet) apart. During the courting season, males stay in the vicinity of their court. Males will compete for the finest courts at the beginning of the breeding season.

Uplifted feathers, wide wings, open beaks, prominent claws, and loud shrieking and snarling are used to confront one another. Birds may be injured or killed as a result of fighting. With the ripening of the rimu fruit, breeding happens every five years or so. Males make "booming" cries for 6–8 hours every night for more than four months during mating season.

Feeding

The kakapo's beak is designed to ground food efficiently. As a result, relative to other birds of its size, the kakapo seems to have a fairly small gizzard. It is a completely herbivorous creature that feeds on natural plants, pollen, fruits, seeds, and even tree sapwood. In a 1984 study, 25 plant species were recorded as kakapo food. It is especially fond of the rimu tree's fruit, which it will eat entirely throughout seasons when it has been plentiful. Including its beak, the kakapo removes the plant's nutritional portions, leaving a ball of indigestible fibre. The existence of the bird is indicated by these small clumps of plant fibres. The kakapo is thought to use microorganisms in its foregut to ferment and aid in the digestion of plant stuff.

The diet of kakapos varies depending on the season. Lycopodium ramulosum, Blechnum minus, Schizaea fistulosa, Lycopodium fastigium, Cyathodes juniperina, Blechnum procerum, Olearia colensoi, Dracophyllum longifolium, and Thelymitra venosa are among the plants consumed most frequently throughout the year. Plants of the very same species are frequently treated in diverse ways. Kakapo leave a clear description of their feeding activity, ranging in size from 10 by 10 metres (30 ft 30 ft) to 50 by 100 metres (160 ft 330 ft) per person. Manuka and yellow silver pine (Lepidothamnus intermedius) scrubs are mostly present on kakapo feeding grounds.

Conservation

The kakapo was New Zealand's third most popular bird in pre-Polynesian periods, according to fossil records, and it has been found across all three main islands. The kakapo population in New Zealand, on the other hand, has plummeted during human settlement, as well as its conservation status remains "Nationally Critical" according to the Department of Conservation. Conservation efforts have been conducted to avert extinction since the 1890s. The Kakapo Recovery Program, which began in 1995 and is still going strong, is by far the most successful initiative.

Human Impact: The emergence of humans was the very first factor in the kakapo's demise. According to Mori legend, when the Polynesians first came to Aotearoa 700 years ago, the kakapo was spread all throughout the land. The bird had widespread all through the North and South Island before or during early Maori times, according to subfossil and midden deposits. The kakapo was hunted by Maori for food as well as their skins and feathers, which are being used to make cloaks.

The kakapo become easy targets for the Maori and their dogs limited in its ability to fly, powerful scent, and behavior of freezing when confronted. The Polynesian rat, or kiore, hunted on its eggs and young, wherein the Maori carried to New Zealand as a stowaway. Additionally, Mori's deliberate clearance of vegetation decreased the kakapo's habitable habitat. Even though the kakapo has been endangered across many areas of the islands through the time Europeans came, such as the Tararua and Aorangi Ranges, this was abundant in other regions of New Zealand, notably the central North Island and forested areas of the South Island.

Early Protection Efforts: Resolution Island in Fiordland was designated as a nature reserve by the New Zealand government in 1891. Richard Henry was designated as caretaker by the government in 1894. Henry, a dedicated naturalist, saw a decline in native birds and started trapping and transporting kakapo and kiwi from the mainland to the predator-free Resolution Island. He relocated about 200 kakapo to Resolution Island in under six years. Stoats, on the other hand, seemed to have swum to Resolution Island and colonised these by 1900, wiping out the fledgling kakapo population in just six years.

Three kakapo were relocated from Resolution Island to Little Barrier Island, a nature reserve north-east of Auckland, in 1903, however feral cats were there, and the kakapo have never been seen again. Three kakapo were relocated to Kapiti Island, north-west of Wellington, in 1912. Given the availability of wild cats for periods of time, another of them remained until at least 1936.

Kakapo Recovery programme: In 1989, a Kakapo Recovery plan was created, and in 1995, a Kakapo Recovery programme was launched. For this job, the New Zealand Department of Conservation took over from the Wildlife Service.

The plan's initial step was to transfer all of the existing kakapo to appropriate breeding islands. Without considerable re-vegetation and the removal of invasive animal predators and rivals, neither of the New Zealand islands seemed perfect for establishing kakapo. Maud, Codfish, Hauturu/Little Barrier, and Mana were the final four islands selected. In five translocations, 65 kakapo (43 males, 22 females) were effectively transplanted to the four islands.

When feral cats, stoats, and weka kept showing up on some islands, they had to be rehabilitated multiple times. Because of the rough topography, dense vegetation, and persistent presence of rats, Little Barrier Island was ultimately deemed unsuitable, and its birds were removed in 1998. Together with Mana Island, 2 additional kakapo sanctuaries were established: Chalky Island (Te Kakahu) and Anchor Island.