Kakapo

Fascinating facts about the Kakapo

• A single male can weigh up to 3 kg, making the kakapo the heaviest living parrot, about 400 g heavier than the giant hyacinth macaw. Adult males weigh around 1.5-3 kilograms (3.3-6.6 lb); the equivalent figure for females is 0.950-1.6 kilograms (2.09-3.53 lb).
• The kākāpō is critically endangered; the total known population of living individuals is 325 (as of 2026). Known individuals are named, tagged and confined to four small New Zealand islands, all of which are clear of predators; however, in 2023, a reintroduction to mainland New Zealand (Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari) was accomplished.
• Males gather on leks up to 5 km from their home range and boom for 6-8 hours each night over four months, using self-made bowl depressions that act as acoustic amplifiers. During the courting season, males leave their home ranges for hilltops and ridges where they establish their own mating courts. These leks can be up to 5 kilometres (3 mi) from a kākāpō's usual territory and are an average of 50 metres (160 ft) apart within the lek arena. Mating years, males may make "booming bowls" dug in the ground by the male, up to 10 centimetres (4 in) deep and long enough to fit the half-metre length of the bird. The bowls themselves function as amplifiers to enhance the projection of the males' booming mating calls.
• The kakapo's genome shows extreme inbreeding after a bottleneck that left only 49 birds, resulting in 61 % of eggs failing to hatch. Because kākāpō passed through a genetic bottleneck, in which their world population was reduced to 49 birds, they are extremely inbred and have low genetic diversity. This manifests in lower disease resistance and infertility problems: 61% of kākāpō eggs fail to hatch. Beginning in 2015, the Kākāpō 125+ project has sequenced the genome of all living kākāpō, as well as some museum specimens.
• Unlike most parrots, the kakapo can smell food, with an olfactory bulb ratio larger than any other parrot, giving it a distinct musty-sweet odor that can even alert predators. The kākāpō has a well-developed sense of smell, which complements its nocturnal lifestyle. It can distinguish between odours while foraging, a behaviour reported in only one other parrot species. The kākāpō has a large olfactory bulb ratio (longest diameter of the olfactory bulb/longest diameter of the brain) indicating that it does, indeed, have a more developed sense of smell than other parrots. One of the most striking characteristics of the kākāpō is its distinct musty-sweet odour. The smell often alerts predators to the presence of kākāpō. This rare sensory adaptation helps the bird locate scarce night-time food but also makes it more detectable to predators.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Kakapo

In the misty, primeval forests of New Zealand, the kakapo stirs, a nocturnal giant among parrots, its soft, owl-like feathers a masterful disguise as it glides silently through the underbrush. With an unhurried gait, this lumbering bird navigates its surroundings, its large, round body undulating as it searches for the ripest fruits and leaves to sustain its remarkable, if fragile, existence. As the last of its kind, the kakapo's very presence is a poignant reminder of the beauty and vulnerability of life on the brink of extinction.

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