S&P’s wildlife spotlight: the kākāpō
Our first print of a kākāpō!
Sirocco the kākāpō at Orokonui Ecosanctuary in September 2018.
Our first print of a kākāpō was so successful, we decided he needed a friend!
On our brand new blog, one of the things we wanted to do is feature an animal each month - telling a bit more about it’s story and hopefully share our wonder of these animals! And what better place to start than with one of the first prints that we made for our business - the kākāpō!
The kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus) is a large, flightless parrot - endemic to New Zealand (meaning it occurs nowhere else in the world). We were inspired to create a print of the kākāpō after we were lucky enough to meet Sirocco the kākāpō when he was touring at Orokonui Ecosanctuary. Sirocco’s fame most likely comes from featuring in the documentary ‘Last Chance to See’ (highly recommended!) - where Mark Carwardine has a rather close encounter with this large charismatic parrot! The fame of the kākāpō is so far reaching that when we started selling kākāpō t-shirts, we were amazed at the wide variety of places around the world (pre-COVID, when international shipping was cheaper/easier!) they were going!
The kākāpō is certainly fascinating for many reasons; firstly, they are nocturnal - which is highly unusual for parrots; the only other parrot I know of that is nocturnal is the Australian night parrot (which was thought to be extinct until recently).
Secondly, they are the only known ‘lek breeding’ parrot in the world; this means that males aggregate within an area and advertise to females, forming a ‘market’ of sorts, for the female kākāpō to choose a male of their liking. Males within the area create their own ‘track and bowl’ - a cleared area, and from their bowls they call with a resounding ‘boom’ which attracts the females.
Thirdly, they are possibly the longest-lived parrot in the world; it’s always hard to know for sure - but estimates suggest they could live for 90 years. They are also the heaviest parrot in the world; when you don’t need to fly - you can afford a few extra pounds!
But - they are in serious trouble; being a big flightless bird means that they are vulnerable to introduced predators - and they currently only persist on predator-free islands. They are intensively managed with supplementary feeding and intervention during breeding seasons to ensure as many chicks survive as possible. But predators aren’t the only problem; they also suffer substantially from diseases - a (so far) ‘mystery’ disease which has been termed ‘crusty bum’ (cloacitis) seems to affect them from time to time; and aspergillosis (a fungal disease) has been a significant threat in recent years - causing the death of several adult birds. The fact their populations probably underwent a serious bottleneck before intense conservation management began makes them more vulnerable to things like diseases.
While kākāpō are in a precarious position - there is a lot of work going on to help them; and at the time of writing - its a breeding year (kākāpō don’t breed every year, only when there’s enough food around) and the chicks are growing quickly! If you want to help the kākāpō - you can ‘adopt a kākāpō’, with the money going towards their ongoing conservation.
In honour of the kākāpō - for the month of April in 2022 - we are offering 10% off all purchases of our kākāpō products in our Etsy shop, using the coupon code: KAKAPO10
