Huge endangered parrots make a big comeback

“Following a very fruitful breeding season, the number of critically endangered kākāpō parrots in New Zealand has grown to 325, up from just 51 in 1995.”

Kākāpō parrots are huge compared to most parrots, and weigh up to 9 pounds. The kākāpō is the heaviest species of parrot on Earth. The kākāpō is the only flightless parrot. “The kākāpō is curious by nature and has been known to interact with humans.” It has a musty sweet smell, and a reported lifespan of up to 100 years.

The Guardian reports:

“The population of the world’s heaviest parrot, the kākāpō, has surpassed 300 birds for the first time in 75 years, after a record breeding season triggered by the mass fruiting of a native New Zealand tree.

Ninety chicks were officially added to the population of the critically endangered birds on 1 September, pushing the total to 325 – a record high since recovery efforts began…

Kākāpō, the world’s only nocturnal and flightless parrot, were once abundant across New Zealand. But their population plummeted after the introduction of predators such as cats and stoats. By the 1900s, they were nearly extinct.

A recovery program was established in 1995 with a population of just 51 birds and has battled challenges with genetic diversity, infertility and poor chick hatching rates. There are three kākāpō breeding populations, all based on predator-free islands off the South Island.

Kākāpō breed only every two to four years when the native rimu trees produce large numbers of berries, so repopulation is slow. This year, after a four-year wait, a bountiful harvest of rimu berries prompted the birds to breed and produce a record number of chicks.”

In January, an endangered flat-headed cat was discovered.

Last year, a rare flightless grasshopper was found in Virginia, where such grasshoppers had not been seen for 79 years.

Bison have made a comeback in Europe. “In the 1920s, there were just 54 European bison, all in captive areas, after intense hunting over millennia, but thanks to rewilding efforts there are now around 10,000″ bison in Europe, “mostly in Russia and Belarus.”

Snub-nosed monkeys are making a comeback in China.

Mountain gorillas are making a comeback in the African country of Rwanda.

The critically-endangered Siberian crane is growing more numerous.