Imagine you wake up one day and are told to look after the last 86 kakapo in the world! What would you do?
Well, that is the challenge facing the Kakapo Recovery Programme every day. It sounds daunting, but it is all about doing some fairly simple things over and over again, and doing them well.
We manage the birds in the wild to ensure they are healthy and ready for breeding.
We research new ideas that might help ensure a future for the kakapo.
We develop new technology that helps us in our daily work.
A Plan for the Future
Management of the kakapo today is being guided by the Kakapo Recovery Plan. The current plan runs from 1996-2005, and outlines three key goals for the species.
To increase the breeding frequency of the existing population
To increase the productivity of nesting attempts
To determine why kakapo breed infrequently
To increase the breeding frequency of the existing population
The Kakapo Recovery Programme must ensure that the surviving kakapo breed as frequently and successfully as possible over coming years.
One of the first steps will be to find a way of triggering breeding in kakapo. This is the aim of both a supplementary feeding programme and much scientific research.
To increase the productivity of nesting attempts
Even when kakapo do breed, the Kakapo Recovery Programme needs to ensure any eggs and chicks produced have as high a chance of survival as possible.
This is being achieved through a comprehensive `Nest Kit` and an improved ability to artificially incubate eggs and raise chicks in captivity. It should also be helped by a research project aimed at determining the fertility of male kakapo.
To determine why kakapo breed infrequently
The Kakapo Recovery Programme is researching different aspects of kakapo feeding and behaviour to try to find out why kakapo breed so irregularly. This includes research into what components of a supplementary food diet might trigger breeding.
Ultimately, the Kakapo Recovery Plan has a vision for the species:
To establish at least one viable