On a small, remote island, south of New Zealand, one of the world’s rarest parrots – the kākāpō - is watching over her young. She’s not alone. Hidden in her nest, a live webcam broadcasts her activity to a global audience of more than 100,000 fans, who are utterly captivated.
This is the first permanent livestream of a kākāpō’s nest. It has been installed by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation to provide insight into the species’ nesting behaviour and give people a chance to see – and fall in love with – this enigmatic bird.
“Very few people get the chance to see a kākāpō in real life,” says Andrew Digby, who is the Department’s Kākāpō Science Advisor. “Viewers have been absolutely hooked.”
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The kākāpō (pronounced kar-kar-paw) is the world’s fattest, heaviest, least-able-to fly parrot. Before this breeding season, there were just 236 individuals, making the kākāpō one of the world’s most endangered birds.
Kākāpō Cam follows the fortunes of a 24-year-old mother called Rakiura. Launched in January, the black and white camera has captured her bustling around her nest in the roots of an old rātā tree, where she has incubated her eggs, scuffled with spiders and fought off a marauding petrel. Now, she is raising two fluffy chicks, Nora and Vori, who grow bigger every day.
“Seeing this live from the other side of the planet is amazing,” commented one viewer in the chat forum. “What a great mum,” said another.
Things were once bleak for the kākāpō. After the introduction of non-native species, such as stoats and rats, which decimated their numbers, the kākāpō reach an all-time low in the mid-90s, when there were just 51 birds. Since then, conservationists have used science, technology and hard graft to boost the species’ recovery.
Recently, all adult birds have had their DNA decoded. This has enabled conservationists to create a kākāpō family tree and then separate closely related birds to avoid inbreeding. To monitor their behaviour, each adult is fitted with a backpack containing an activity tracker and transmitter. Artificial insemination has been used to boost the females’ fertility. Data loggers have been placed inside their nests, and ‘smart eggs’ – 3D printed by Lord of the Rings’ prop makers, Wētā Workshop – are sometimes substituted into the nests where they make chirping sounds to prepare the females for motherhood.
Breeding occurs every two to four years, when there is a bumper crop of berries on the native rimu trees, but only a third of eggs hatch into healthy fledglings. The most successful breeding season so far was in 2019, when 73 kākāpō fledged from 253 eggs. This year, a similar number of eggs have been laid. Seventy have hatched so far, but with the breeding season still ongoing, that number is expected to increase. “There’s a good chance we will beat the 2019 record,” says Digby.
In the meantime, at any time, hundreds of people are tuned in to Kākāpō Cam to watch Rakiura shuffle twigs around, feed her chicks, puff up her feathers. So, please tune in. You won’t regret it.
To find out more, visit the Department of Conservation's Kākāpō Recovery page.
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