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<a href="appearance.html">Kakapo Appearance and Habits</a> |
<a href="endangered.html">Why they became endangered</a> |
<a href="summary.html">Conservation History</a><br>
<a href="update99_6.html">June 1999 Kakapo Update</a> |
<a href="save.html">How you can help</a> |
<a href="publications.html">Publications</a> |
<a href="news.html">News</a>
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<a href="/images/peering.jpeg"><img border="0" width="150" height="115"
alt="A strolling kakapo" src="/images/sm-peering.jpg"></a></td>
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<img width="208" height="74" alt="The Fabulous Kakapo"
src="/images/header.gif"><br>
<font size="-1">This site is available in <a
href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~eq6i-imi/kakapoj.html"
target="_top"> Japanese</a>.<br>
Este site está disponivel em <a href="portuguese/index.html"
target="_top">Português</a>.<br>
Diese Seite ist in <a href="http://vogelfreund.de/kakapo/"
target="_top">Deutsch</a>
verfügbar.
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The ancient, flightless Kakapo is the world's rarest and strangest
parrot. It the only flightless and nocturnal parrot, as well as being
the heaviest in the world, weighing up to 3.5 kilograms (8 lbs).
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The birds live in New Zealand, an island country which had virtually no
mammals living on it for millions of years. It was a place inhabited by
birds and reptiles. The only types of mammal were two species of bats.
The Kakapo did not learn the defense mechanisms to combat or escape
mammalian predators. This made the parrot very vulnerable when new
animals started showing up.
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The arrival of Polynesian peoples thousands of years ago, of Europeans
in the 1800's, and ultimately the pets and livestock they brought with
them resulted in the massive decline of Kakapo populations from hundreds
of thousands to a mere handful of birds.
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<a href="/images/feeding.jpeg"><img align="left" border="0" width="150"
height=115 alt="mother kakapo feeding a chick"
src="/images/sm-feeding.jpg"></a><br clear="all">
<font size="-1"> Mother kakapo feeding her chick.</font>
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Once common throughout the three main islands of New Zealand, there are
now approximately 62 Kakapo left. These remaining birds have been
relocated to six predator free island habitats, where the birds are relatively safe
and have been breeding!
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<font size="-1">Note: This site was built to provide a general background about
the Kakapo parrots and contains yearly updates. Our News & Links section points
to more recent news articles on other web sites.</font>
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<font size="-1">This document is edited and updated regularly. Keep
looking for new and improved developments! Suggestions and comments
welcome. Copyright © 1994-1999 <a
href="mailto:ruhue@abattoir.com">R.Bateman</a> and <a
href="credits.html">others</a>.</i></font><br>
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