FEATURE
O
ur final speaker of the day - and what had proved to be a highly successful seminar – had also
travelled from America for the event. Barbara Heidenreich is a world-renowned animal training and behaviour consultant, and has produced several DVDs, books and articles on animal and bird behaviour. She began her presentation and ensured that no-one had nodded off by showing the entertaining video clip of the notorious Kakapo ‘Sirocco’. First featured in a 2009 BBC TV programme focusing on endangered species, with zoologist Mark Carwardine and narrator Stephen Fry, the film shows this heavy parrot attempting to mate with Mark’s head, much to the considerable amusement of his companion. The clip has since become a worldwide hit on YouTube. Barbara went on to explain that the
Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) is a unique, endangered parrot species, being nocturnal, flightless but able to climb, solitary, and the heaviest living parrot, weighing in at around 4 Kg (9 lb). It is found only in New Zealand, and in 1995 its population numbered just some 50 birds, owing mostly to predation by introduced cats, rats and stoats. Since that time, conservation projects have slowly increased numbers to around 150, with careful breeding techniques, and placing the birds on predator-free islands. The
birds are potentially long-lived, but slow breeders, coming into breeding condition in response to a flush of their favourite fruit of the Rimu tree, and this flush does not happen every year. Kakapo are Lekking birds – that is to say that males scrape a ‘bowl’ in the ground, and stand guard over it, aggressively chasing away rival males. They use their air sacs to make loud booming noises to attract females, and will vigorously mount anything that passes close enough to attempt mating with. Sexually active males will boom for eight hours a night, over a period of three months, but they play no part at all in nesting, egg incubation, or care of chicks.
Barbara went on to explain that the Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) is a unique, endangered parrot species, being nocturnal, flightless but able to climb, solitary, and the heaviest living parrot, weighing in at around 4 Kg (9 lb). It is found only in New Zealand, and in 1995 its population numbered just some 50 birds, owing mostly to predation by introduced cats, rats and stoats. Since that time, conservation projects have slowly increased numbers to around 150, with careful breeding techniques, and placing the birds on predator- free islands.
BIRD SCENE 07
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