Conservation Of The Kakapo Conservation

Kakapo Conservation – Biology Issue Report

The Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), a flightless parrot native exclusively to New Zealand is currently listed on the International Union of Conservation of Nature’s Red List under ‘Critically Endangered’. This listing has really highlighted the problem of the declining population of the kakapo, and can only emphasise the fact that something needs to be done to save this struggling species. In this report I am going to investigate and discuss solutions to revive the struggling kakapo population. I am mainly going to focus on the in situ conservation of supplementary feeding of kakapo, while also investigating the use of artificial insemination and the ex situ conservation captive breeding.

The population of the Kakapo has rapidly declined over the last 200 or so years since the 19th Century. During this period, the kakapo could be found inhabiting both the North, South and Stewart Islands of New Zealand whereas at present day, the Kakapo can now only be found on only 3 small islands surrounding New Zealand. This huge decline in population has most definitely been caused by the colonisation of New Zealand, which brought along the introduction of animals such as Cats, Dogs, Rats, and Stoats. This exploration also destroyed much of the habitat the kakapo rely on, such as the fruit of the berry of the rimu bush. The invasion, along with the kakapo's high infertility rates (only 58 % of eggs hatch) and the fact that kakapo only reproduce once every 2-5 years have all contributed to the near extinction. The population is thought to have been somewhere in the 1000s before this period in time, compared to the 2012 population count of 126 Kakapo that reside on the Islands today.

The main solution...

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...ks hatched which resulted in the male bias being eliminated and the ration being back to about 50/50.

This breakthrough was approved by the department of conservation in New Zealand, and currently is the main conservation solution used by the Kakapo Recovery program. The program has continued and developed the use of supplementary feeding, and has successfully introduced feeding stations throughout Codfish Island. These feeding stations are activated when a kakapo with a selected radio tag hops onto the station (kakapos with an 'underweight' category qualify for this females <1.5kg and males <2kg) and food is dropped from a dispenser for the bird. The birds can come back whenever they want, as they can easily be tracked and monitored for changes in weight and health.

This in-situ conservation program is seemingly very appropriate for conservation of the kakapo.