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During the second weekend in June, five thousand people queued at the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary in Nelson, South Island, to see the six young Kakapo hand-reared that year. With their soft olive-green and yellowish plumage, innocent little faces and almost teddy-bearish appeal, they charmed everyone who saw them. Their next stop was Invercargill for another public viewing, then they were transferred to Codfish Island for eventual release. One of the females who bred was Hoki, the first young female to survive since 1981. She had been taken from Codfish Island as a starving chick of five and a half weeks. The year was 1993. In September of that year, I was accorded a unique privilege. Don Merton took me to Maud Island in Pelorous Sound, where Hoki was living. One moonlight night Don and I had a visit from Hoki. We sat quietly for one hour and were rewarded in seeing her behave as Kakapo have done for millennia, moving about, often on the run, feeding on grasses. I was intrigued by unexpected behaviour traits, such as moving her head from side to side, more like a bird of prey judging distance, than a parrot. In a lifetime of watching parrots and other birds, this is the memory I treasure most. During the past 20 years, Kakapo have been placed by DOC on eight islands from which all predators had been eradicated. Currently, every bird except 21 males not needed in the breeding programme, are on Codfish Island. Disease, fire or some other catastrophe could wipe out the entire adult population. Don Merton told me in May 2008 that he believes they should be more widely dispersed.

“This would allow Kakapo to exploit food sources that are possibly more nutritious, more frequent and more reliable than rimu, such as white pine. It would also remove the potentially very serious problem of male Kakapo interfering with the nests of females (this has already happened) due to the Kakapo carrying capacity of an island being exceeded.”

More recently, he told me that one of his greatest concerns was that Anchor Island, where the surplus males live, and islands earmarked for future Kakapo releases, are within swimming range of stoats and it will not be possible to keep them free of these bloodthirsty creatures.

He is worried for the future of this charismatic parrot. He said: “It is imperative that Kakapo populations are established on cold southern islands, such as Campbell Island in the Auckland Islands. It is conceivable that northern ones, such as Codfish, could become too warm to support this species.”

In extreme cases relating to endangered species, Don advocates relocation to an island outside a species’ natural range. He told me: “This is a better option than labour-intensive and expensive human assistance. The purist approach of keeping a bird in its natural range is no longer an option for some species.”  In fact, this includes the Kakapo as there is no fossil history or other evidence to show that it once occurred on Codfish Island.

It seems that because of the large increase in the Kakapo population during this decade, conservation officials might be too complacent in their attitude towards this critically endangered parrot. They must heed the words of Don Merton who devoted such a large part of his working life to it. With his unparalleled experience and passion, he understands better than anyone that the Kakapo is at grave risk of extinction unless it is dispersed to other islands in the very near future. Otherwise the chance might be lost forever and future generations would wonder how the huge advances achieved during his working life (and so often as a result of his initiative) were so carelessly lost.

Don’s latest worry concerns funding of the Kakapo project. Budgets in all New Zealand government departments are being severely cut, he told me in September. The Kakapo budget will be reduced significantly each year for the next three years. Fortunately, the corporate sponsor, Rio Tinto NZ, is still faithful to the project.

This is where parrot groups and other avicultural and conservation societies can help out. In the UK, the Society for Conservation in Aviculture decided to donate £1,000 to the project at its AGM in September. I hope that more organisations will contribute towards saving the planet’s most extraordinary and lovable parrot.

Yellow-fronted Kakariki
Less than 15% of the original lowland forest remains in New Zealand, The beech forests on the west coast of South Island were being logged right up until 1999 when the government suddenly announced that logging would cease and the forest would be protected.

Two parrots that rely heavily on beech (Nothofagus) are New Zealand’s beautiful and vocally fascinating forest parrot, the Kaka and the Yellow-fronted Kakariki, also called the Yellow-crowned Parakeet (Cyanoramphus auriceps). The latter on the mainland is now mainly confined to the least disturbed forest areas. Loss of habitat and the inevitable problems with introduced predators, have drastically reduced numbers of this once widespread and numerous bird.

The parakeets were studied in Eglinton Valley, in South Island’s remote Fiordland, one of the few places where they have survived on the mainland.  It was found that they feed extensively on beech seed when this was available and would breed for a whole year following prolific seeding of beech trees. However, as soon as breeding ceased, the population fell sharply, as the result of predation by stoats. There were so many stoats that trapping had little impact. Because the Yellow-fronted Kakarikis are hole nesters and the chicks become very noisy just before they fledge, they are also easy prey for stoats.

Forbes’ Parakeet
The history of Forbes’ Parakeet (Cyanoramphus forbesi), larger and brighter than the Yellow-fronted, with a less extensive crimson frontal band, has been dramatic, to say the least, in recent years. Its miniscule habitat was reduced to a four-hectare forest patch on the island of Little Mangere and an equally catastrophic threat was the presence of the Chatham Island sub-species of the Red-fronted Parakeet (Cyanoramphis n. chathamensis) which was hybridising with Forbes’ Parakeet. Just recently, at the last hour, its extinction was averted. Almost all the hybrids were culled, and today the population is described as 98% Forbes’, 1% hybrids and 1% Red-fronted, after most of the parakeets were trapped and examined.

DNA work has shown that Forbes’ Parakeet is not a sub-species of the Yellow-fronted, as previously thought, but is as distinct from it as a Yellow-fronted is from a Red-fronted.