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Kakapo

Strigops habroptila (Gray, 1845) – mostly known as kakapo after Māori - kākāpō (night parrot). The kakapo is the world's heaviest parrot and the only member of the Strigopidae family which is endemic to New Zealand. In common with many species of New Zealand birds, the kakapo is a flightless bird. It has reduced wing muscles and a diminished keel on the sternum, probably caused by a long evolutionary history in an environment free from predators.

Unlike the other birds (but in common with some flightless ones) the kakapo's feathers resemble fur and are coloured to camouflage the bird in its environment and reduce heat loss rather than offer aerodynamic advantage. The kakapo has a distinctive face with large spiracles on the beak. Males are bigger than females. The body build is quite robust, with a thick layer of fat tissue as an adaptation for a life lived on the ground, even though it forages for food in the canopy.

The kakapo has a specific mating ritual where males attract females with noisy displays. Only the female takes care of the chicks. The kakapo is a nocturnal bird.

Because of kakapo meat is edible to humans and to predators introduced to the islands in the 19th century, the kakapo is Critically Endangered on the IUCN list. In 1995 the kakapo population had shrunk to approximately 50 birds, but thanks to the Kakapo Recovery Plan the population began to recover, with some 120 kakapos living today. Unfortunatly, the range of the species is very small and includes only Codfish Island in south New Zealand and Fiordland National Park in the south-western part of South Island.