Kākāpō Recovery Programme Update

Update from Deidre Vercoe - Operations Manager

New staff: In this newsletter we profile a few new staff that have recently joined the Kākāpō Recovery Team. Some of them are already familiar faces to us!

It’s fantastic to have a near full team of dedicated people bringing a raft of skills.

Transfers: In July four kākāpō were transferred the length of the country, from Whenua Hou to Hauturu-o-Toi. 

In August, a young female kākāpō Tītapu was transferred from Anchor to Whenua Hou. 

Summits and conferences: The team attended both the National Science Challenge “Crazy and Ambitious” conference and the Threatened Species Summit in Wellington. This was an opportunity for the team to present and discuss bold science and research for kākāpō.

Health Checks: The team have checked all 32 of the 2016 juveniles and they are all doing very well.  We’ve also checked every bird on Whenua Hou for the disease ‘cloacitis’.

Population 153: Sadly 8-year-old kākāpō Wharetutu was found dead on Whenua Hou. She had recently recovered from an episode of chronic cloacitis – so we suspect her death may have been related to this, however this remains unconfirmed.

Sirocco: Since the last newsletter we’ve again attempted to locate Sirocco, the celebrity kākāpō, with no luck. Not surprising as during winter he’s less social and unlikely to seek out people. We’ll be waiting for summer before we try again.

Deidre completing a health check on a kākāpō.

Tane Davis of Ngāi Tahu and Fiona McKenzie of Ngāti Manuhiri releasing one of the 4 kākāpō on Hauturu

Threatened Species Summit. Photo by A. Digby

 Kākāpō Konini checking out ranger Jake

Juvenile kākāpō Tītapu. Photo by A. Digby

Cloacitis update

Increased cases of 'crusty bum' in 2016 has sparked a  new research programme to investigate what's causing this disease.

Vitamin D

Studies underway looking at the link between Vitamin D and kākāpō health and fertility.

Genomics

Science Exchange will be donating the remainder of the funding required to complete our Kākāpō125+ project! Once complete it will be  the first time any species in the world has had all of its genomes sequenced.

Technical advisor Daryl Eason gives kākāpō Stumpy treats after a GPS transmitter change

Breeding 2018

With extremely low numbers of green rimu fruit found developing on the trees earlier this year, no breeding is expected on either Whenua Hou or Anchor. However, there are no rimu trees on Hauturu-o-Toi, so we don’t know what plants trigger breeding on this island. Hauturu rangers will keep a close eye on the kākāpō as we come into summer and we’ll see what happens.

Te wiki o te reo Māori – Māori language week

Te wiki o te reo Māori is happening from 11 - 17 September - get involved! We encourage you to pronounce  kākāpō correctly 'car car paw' and to help others in their pronunciation.

T-Shirt fundraiser

Thanks to FLOAT and all those supporters that bought an awesome, limited edition t-shirt through FLOAT. This campaign raised $6282 for Kākāpō  Recovery.

It was so successful we are doing another one!  Watch FLOAT for this one week t-shirt campaign beginning November 1st.

New education resource

An exciting new kākāpō education resource has been launched.  Heaps of information and heaps of fun for everyone.

Kākāpō artwork by Blake of St Michael's Catholic School in Rotorua.

From the Tamariki

Cohen helps save kākāpō

What a legend! Get yourself one of these original t-shirts designed by Cohen and you too can help the kākāpō.

To get a t-shirt email: cohensmission@gmail.com

Mum, Kason and Cohen in the kākāpō t-shirts Cohen designed

Kids' bake day

Owairoa Primary School kids raised $1500 for kākāpō. Well done to those kids and whanau with all that baking.

The money they raised they put into adopting Kākāpō. Great work Owairoa Primary School!

Do you have a story to tell?

This is a space for kids to tell their kākāpō story. If you have a story, picture or idea that you want to share please send it to us: kakaporecovery@doc.govt.nz

Yum! Owairoa Primary School kids' bake day

Owairoa Primary School kid's with their Kākāpō adoption certificates

Despite an encounter with a sea lion looking for a girlfriend, Meridian staff member Rob had a great time on Whenua Hou recently while improving the islands power systems.

Kākāpō fans come from all around the world! We’d like to welcome UK company Quadrant2Design on board as an official supporter, helping us to better tell the kākāpō story with customised display stands.

Our other partners have all also been active with Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) working with Forest &Bird and Auckland Zoo all providing significant support for the kākāpō programme.

Kia ora to the New Zealand clothes company Global Culture who recently made a generous donation thanks to their limited edition range of clothing featuring our favourite green parrot!

We also wanted to shout out to all the amazing people who donate to kākāpō recovery. Your support is vital to so much of our work.  We wanted to share an insight from a dedicated individual; read the inspiring story The Big Bang  from John, who recently donated to the programme.

Meridian Energy staff Rob and Reuben meet a kākāpō with ranger Tim

Check out this great video to see what it’s like to do a kākāpō health check, with Auckland Zoo vet James Chatterton and Ranger Jen, on Whenua Hou