the Kakapo is a flightless parrot from New Zealand which only survives thanks to the strenuous effort of the Kakapo Recovery Plan staff - there are only 86 of these birds left, all of which have names.One of the most striking characteristics of Kakapo is their pleasant and powerful odor. It has been variously described as like flowers and honey, an air freshener, or the inside of an antique violin case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo
The article above is quite long but has some fascinating details of the lengths that conservationists will go to in order to keep this species from extinction.
I guess it's fair enough to do this as the reason the birds were being wiped out in the first place was our fault anyway - but among the things they do are :
- eradication of all feral cats from the island they keep the birds on
- removal of infertile males from the vicinity of females so that they do not engage in "unproductive breeding". sorry lads.
- vaccination of all of the birds from local bacteria
- eradication of possums from the island
- supplementary feeding of females (who will only breed when the rimu fruit tree "masts" or bears lots of fruit)
- hand-rearing of chicks
- staff watching nests over closed-circuit cameras, swooping down on them when the mother leaves to put warm blankets on the eggs
- sprinkling flea powder on the nests
I really wish them all well. Life, and survival, are so very tough.Females are attracted by the booms of the competing males; they too may need to walk several kilometers from their territories to the arena. There a female enters the court of one of the males. The male then performs a display in which he will rock from side to side and make clicking noises with his beak. He will turn his back to the female, spread his wings in display and walk backwards towards her. When in the presence of a female, males apparently become sexually excited, and may attempt to copulate with objects other than female Kakapo. Little is known about copulation but it is believed to be brief. Once the birds have mated, the female returns to her home territory to lay eggs and raise the chicks. The male continues booming in the hope of attracting another female.
