Visiting Kakapo Chicks

Editing and watching this video again just thrills me to pieces. This was an amazing opportunity to meet one of the rarest parrot species in the world. It is long but there is some great dialog about kakapos in the background. There are 6 females and 1 male in the group. They were released to the wild a few weeks later.

The story of the Kakapo Recovery Programme is pretty inspiring. Kakapos were nearly wiped out completely by introduced stoats, rats, dogs and cats. Animal heroes such as Richard Henry and Don Merton went to great lengths to find safe island homes for the few remaining birds. These birds now live on Codfish Island and are closely monitored. Unfortunately they need more than an island to survive. They need genetic diversity, higher numbers and a plentiful food supply during breeding season. Different strategies have been implemented to address these issues and so far they seem to be working. Kakapo numbers are up to 131 individuals (from a low of 50). However as you can imagine 131 birds is still a small population and there is much more work to be done.

I hope the video gives you a little taste of the moment and hopefully moves you to take action to save rare parrot species. You can support the Kakapo Recovery Programme directly via their website. http://www.kakaporecovery.org.nz/inde... You can learn more about the Kakapo from the film The Unnatural History of the Kakapo. http://www.kakaporecovery.org.nz/inde... You can also follow Sirocco the official Spokesbird for the project on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/#!/siroccokakapo

The parrots in our lives give us such joy. I know every time I interact with my birds I will reflect upon my Kakapo encounter and be inspired to help parrots in the wild. If you have additional ideas to help raise awareness and funding please be sure to add your comments.

Barbara Heidenreich
www.GoodBirdInc.com
Copyright 2011