Claire Concannon and Dr Andrew Digby talk about all things kākāpō: that habitat trial and where the birds are now, the next breeding season, and Andrew’s hopes for the future of this iconic manu.  

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In July 2023 four male kākāpō were released into the fenced Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari – part of a new habitat trial to investigate suitable locations for the growing kākāpō population. But after a further six were introduced, the kākāpō began to wander – beyond the fence. A year on, and several escapes later, what’s been learned? And what’s next for kākāpō in Maungatautari?

There are plenty of night-time wanderers in New Zealand that you might expect to come across driving on back roads – rats, mice, a seemingly endless number of possums.

But it’s not often that you round a corner to come face to face with a kākāpō.

Elwin’s escapade

This was the surprising sight that faced Tyler James Lindsay very early one morning in January 2024.

A Cambridge local, Tyler was driving a milk tanker along Scott Road, northeast of Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, when suddenly he saw before him a strange shape.

“Just a big green bird. Just in the middle of the road looking straight at my lights, I think it was rather confused,” he says.

Luckily, Tyler is into native birds, so he was aware that kākāpō had been introduced to the fenced sanctuary six months earlier. He knew exactly what he was looking at.

The next day, Tyler’s report made its way to Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari kākāpō ranger Dan Howie, who quickly began the search for the elusive Elwin.

“Such an incredible interaction that he saw this bird out there – in the middle of the road no less – which is absolutely terrifying as kākāpō ranger,” says Dan.

But this was not the first time, nor the last, that Dan would feel that fear.

The habitat trial

Kākāpō numbers are growing. In 1995 there were just 51 kākāpō and the threat of losing them forever was all too real.

A decade ago, around the time that Dr Andrew Digby joined the Kākāpō Recovery team, there were just over 120 kākāpō. Today there are 247.

Intensive management and three quite successful breeding seasons have enabled this doubling of kākāpō numbers in the last 10 years. Initially, the challenge was to save the charismatic, flightless parrots from extinction. Now, the team also has an added challenge: where to put them.

To date, the majority of kākāpō have lived on offshore predator-free islands in the rohe of Ngāi Tahu – Whenua Hou / Codfish Island next to Rakiura / Stewart Island, and Pukenui / Anchor Island in Fiordland. But these islands are getting full…

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Coming soon to RNZ Podcasts is the new series Voice of Tangaroa, exploring the state of our oceans, and the extraordinary variety of life that calls it home. Released weekly from Thursday 29 February, you can find the episodes in the Voice of Tangaroa or Our Changing World podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

Voice of Tangaroa is a joint production between RNZ's Our Changing World and New Zealand Geographic.

Reporting for this series is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air. You can learn more and read the articles for free at www.nzgeo.com/seas

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Alison Ballance joins the kākāpō recovery team on Pukenui Anchor Island to hear how the 2021/2022 kākāpō breeding season is going.

It's been very quiet on the kākāpō front for the last two years, but this year is another big one for the rare bird.

In 2019, the endangered flightless night parrot had its largest breeding season on record, as recounted in the RNZ podcast series the Kākāpō Files and Voice of the Kākāpō. After a rollercoaster ride of successes and setbacks, 72 chicks fledged, temporarily boosting the kākāpō population to 213 birds.

Since then, there has been a slow attrition due to deaths of both old and young birds, which saw this breeding season kick off with 201 birds.

Most importantly, this number included 57 females of breeding age, which are spread across three southern kākāpō islands: Pukenui-Anchor Island (in Fiordland), Te Kakahu-Chalky Island (also in Fiordland) and Whenua Hou-Codfish Island (near Stewart Island). Forty six of those females have bred this year, laying a grand total of 139 eggs.

By autumn, 57 chicks out of the 60 that hatched were doing well, most of them being raised by their mothers or foster mothers. In previous breeding seasons many chicks have been hand-reared, but Deidre Vercoe, manager of DOC's Kākāpō Recovery Programme, says that this year the team was taking a more hands-off approach. This meant no double clutching, and most eggs were left to hatch in nests rather than in incubators.

There is now a much greater reliance on technology to allow remote monitoring, with every bird wearing a smart radio transmitter that sends information about the wearer to a centralised computer database. Te Kakahu-Chalky island is the most hands-off breeding island, and indications from activity records being sent remotely from the three nesting mothers suggests they are still raising the island's three chicks.

Aspergillosis outbreak

Unfortunately, the onset of autumn marked a bit of a turning point in the breeding season. After a period of hot dry weather in Fiordland, the female Jemma, on Pukenui Island, died from aspergillosis. This fungal disease can be deadly, with nine kākāpō dying from it in the 2019 breeding season, although a number of other kākāpō were successfully treated.

A second Pukenui female, Roha, has since been diagnosed with severe aspergillosis and is fighting for her life at Auckland Zoo. Some chicks are at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital being treated for aspergillosis as well as injuries such as broken legs…

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A deadly fungal disease strikes the kākāpō population on Whenua Hou and the Kākāpō Recovery team calls on New Zealand wildlife vets to help.

In April 2019, disaster struck the kākāpō population.

There was an outbreak of the deadly fungal disease aspergillosis, which would eventually kill two adult females and seven chicks.

But against expectations, veterinary experts were able to nurse many birds back to health.

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