There have been 24 kākāpō matings so far, and the number is increasing as mating action heats up on all three breeding islands. Deidre Vercoe, from the Kākāpō Recovery Programme, tells Alison Ballance that some 7-year-old birds from the 2019 breeding season have mated for the first time. The first female to mate this season, Pearl, has laid infertile eggs, but nightly activity monitoring shows that three more females have started nesting. Technical Advisor Daryl Eason talks about the under-achievers, founder kākāpō that either haven’t bred at all or have produced only a few chicks.

Send any Kākāpō Files questions and comments to [email protected]

In this episode:

00:00 – Introduction
00:51 – Mating updates
03:06 - Nesting updates
06:27 - Artificial insemination progress
10:40 - Male under-achievers
14:09 - Female under-achievers
15:26 - Closing credits

Learn more:

• Follow the Kākāpō Files podcast to keep up to date.
• Listen to the Voice of the Kākāpō series for a recap of the 2019 breeding season. Also listen to the episodes covering the interim 2022 breeding season, and about how a few male kākāpō have fared in the North Island, in the fenced Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari.
• For more New Zealand science and nature find and follow the Our Changing World podcast, and subscribe to the show’s monthly newsletter.

Guests:

• Andrew Digby, Science Advisor, Kākāpō Recovery Programme
• Daryl Eason, Technical Advisor, Kākāpō Recovery Programme

Kākāpō Files is made in collaboration with the Department of Conservation’s Kākāpō Recovery Programme.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details