There is new hope for the world鈥檚 fattest parrot, the critically endangered kakapo, after the birth of a record-breaking number of chicks.
Fewer than 150 adult kakapo live in New Zealand today after their numbers were decimated by hunting, pests and deforestation. But an enormous effort to regrow the population is paying off, with almost 90 chicks expected to hatch over the breeding season.
The nocturnal, flightless bird breeds when the rimu tree 鈥� a conifer 鈥� is full with fruit, and this only happens every few years. An unusually abundant amount of fruit on the trees this year seems to have driven the females to start breeding early, and sometimes even to nest again after their chicks have grown.
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But conservationists have also played an important role, by relocating the green, owl-faced birds to predator-free islands and by using semen samples from males on one side of the island to artificially inseminate females on the other. They have also been tracking the birds鈥� breeding and nesting behaviour with hidden cameras.
It鈥檚 not all good news, however. More than half a dozen chicks have already died, and several had to be moved from their nests after signs of poor growth.
All of the chicks will be fitted with radio transmitters when they are about two months old, Andrew Digby, at the New Zealand department of conservation, .
The whiskered parrot, which can grow to a height of more than 50 centimetres and weigh up to 4 kilograms, was once one of New Zealand鈥檚 most common birds.
