Building a future for Kākāpō

At Auckland Zoo our mission is to bring people together to build a future for wildlife, and we do this by actively working on the ground, as well as collaborating with our conservation partners, to protect the environment and the animals that call it home – we call this Wild Work.

We take our role as kaitiaki (guardians) of the environment seriously, and spread the skills of our staff far beyond the borders of the zoo to help wildlife in wild places. One of the huge Wild Work projects we’ve committed staff time and resources to this year is assisting our partners at The Department of Conservation’s Kākāpō Recovery to hatch, rear, translocate and use our expert skills to help boost the numbers of an incredibly rare New Zealand parrot.

As early as March 2018, Kākāpō Recovery’s technical experts could tell that 2019 was set to be a huge breeding season for these critically endangered birds. Kākāpō breeding is tied in to when the Rimu tree masts, which they depend on as nourishment for their young.

Once prevalent throughout mainland New Zealand, the introduction of humans and other mammals like stoats, cats, and rats severely impacted kākāpō populations – and in the mid-1990s the population was as low as 50 adult birds. As these long-lived parrots settle down to mate approximately every 2-3 years it has taken a lot of hard mahi from our partners to get the kākāpō population to where it is today – currently sitting at 147 adults.

These precious flightless parrots now live on three main predator free offshore islands: Little Barrier Island (Te Hauturu-o-Toi), Whenua Hou and Anchor Island (Pukenui) - and it is these last two islands, as well as a rearing facility in Invercargill, where many of our staff have been, and will continue to be based over the coming weeks and months.

As of today’s date, an incredible 71 healthy kākāpō chicks have hatched this 2018/19 season and we’re proud to say our team has had a hand in helping every single chick in some way this bumper breeding year.

This is Hinemoa-2-A-19, and although he hasn’t been given his proper name yet, this name tells us that he is the second chick to have hatched from his mum Hinemoa’s first clutch of eggs this year. So far Hinemoa has had two chicks, but this wouldn’t have been possible without dedicated staff on the ground to assist with their care. Kākāpō normally hatch a single chick per season, but due to rimu fruit being in abundance this year, these kākāpō mums can manage many more, with one mum already managing four healthy chicks!  

Auckland Zoo vet Melanie was on Anchor Island, helping this chick hatch on 10 February, as Hinemoa-2-A had his wing abnormally stuck to the inside of his shell, making it impossible for him to emerge from the egg unassisted.

Hatching out very small and weak, the team gave him lots of supportive care over the first 24 hours, including fluids under his skin. He remained in the hand-rearing portacom on the island for a couple of weeks and during this time the team kept a watchful eye on him to ensure he was staying strong, healthy and gaining weight. Because he had been doing so well Hinemoa-2-A-19 was transferred into a nest with foster mum Atareta.

When a chick is placed in a new nest, the first three days are the most critical, and there are staff stationed by nests on the island over consecutive nights to make sure the chicks are properly cared for. After this critical time period, the kākāpō mum’s are far more prepared to deal with these new additions and the chicks will usually start to put on a substantial amount of weight, with full fed tummies each time they are checked.

Little Hinemoa-2-A-19 was checked that first night in the nest and he was found to be weak and cold and unfed, presumably because his bigger brother in the nest was taking the majority of the food and mum’s attention. He was bought back down the hill for veterinary attention at the island portacom. Again, with supportive care he recovered from this well. A decision was then made to hand-rear him again and he was taken off the island at 18 days of age.

Melanie flew via helicopter into Te Anau with him, and like a good surrogate-mum, made sure he was calm and rested, stayed at a good temperature, and had his regular feeds.  At this age the chicks are fed every 4 hours, and he was due for a feed half way between Te Anau and Invercargill. This meant that Melanie had to feed him in the back seat of the car!

As you can see, the top of Hinemoa-2-A-19’s head was marked with orange nail polish so our team could tell him apart from the other kākāpō chicks that he was sharing an incubator with right from his first day of life. The team affectionately knew him as “Orange” for this reason.

The team can confidently tell whether the tiny chicks are female or male by taking culmen (beak) measurements – boys tend to have wider, short beaks while female beaks are longer and thinner.

When the chicks are roughly a month old, a couple of drops of blood will be taken from them to establish who the father is - important information for the genetics of the group, and from this, they can also confirm the sex of the chick. At the same time, the chick will also be microchipped (the same kind of chip we use at the zoo and that your local vet would use on your pet) to help with identifying them. The nail polish identifier on their head tends to rub off very quickly once the chick is in a nest with mum.

As the aim is for all of these chicks to be reared by a kākāpō mum, where possible, Hinemoa-2-A has actually now been placed in the nest of adult kākāpō Rakiura on Whenua Hou, with a second nest-mate that is roughly the same weight.

So far he is doing amazing with Rakiura as his mum, and in fact he has had another younger sibling join the nest making 3 hungry mouths for mum to feed. Our team do the best they possibly can to rear the chicks using knowledge gained by the Kakapo Recovery Team over many years, but we can never do as good of a job as a real kakapo mum can.

We’ll keep you updated on Hinemoa-2-A-19 and his progress – and will let you know when he is given his new name! Stay tuned for more kākāpō news from our team on the islands and in Invercargill and if you have any questions, please let us know.

You can help us to continue our Wild Work and protect what’s precious by visiting our zoo, donating to our Conservation Fund and learning more about Predator Free 2050.