Print Size: 210mm x 297mm

Material: Card

The Kākāpō, also called owl parrot, is a species of large, flightless nocturnal parrot endemic to New Zealand. Although it cannot fly, it is good at climbing trees. Kākāpō are the heaviest parrot in the world, and the only parrot to have a ‘lek’ mating system.

At the beginning of the 19th century, kākāpō were still widespread throughout New Zealand. From the 1840s, European settlers not only hunted the bird, but also set fire to bush for farming, destroying its habitat. By the 1970s, only a few isolated birds were known to exist in Fiordland, South Island. A survey of Stewart Island in 1977 found about 200 more birds but they were rapidly declining through predation by feral cats.