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Kakapo population explosion

  
 
Mourne Kransky
21:21 / 19.03.02
What with news of the looming El Nino menace later in the year and the great big chunk of ice shelf disappearing recently in Antarctica, my pessimistic eco-tart heart gladdened to this Live Parrot news.

  
 
The Planet of Sound
21:25 / 19.03.02
A whole 22 chicks? They'll be taking over the world, riding horses and removing human vocal cords next, no doubt.
 
 
w1rebaby
21:49 / 19.03.02
that is an even more pointless animal than the panda
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
21:55 / 19.03.02
Animals don't have points, you fool.

I am glad about this.
 
 
Naked Flame
21:57 / 19.03.02
I remember Douglas Adams devoting an entire chapter of Last Chance to See to these little beasties. Hooray for parrots!
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
10:09 / 20.03.02
I think I heard about them in a Gerald Durrell book (I cannot be the only person who read Gerald Durrell, surely?). It's the one where he goes to New Zealand (DUH) to see kakapo and takahe... is there any good news about takahe?
 
 
higuita
11:09 / 20.03.02
quote:Originally posted by Kit-Cat Club:
Animals don't have points, you fool.


<obvious gag>
Come on, what about the porcupine...
</obvious gag>

Oh, sorry, see what you mean. Still, Kakapo. Eh? Eh? It's a funny name. Come on...
 
 
Mourne Kransky
11:23 / 20.03.02
Similar projects in New Zealand involving the takahe too, Kit-Cat, but their numbers are in the hundreds and so they don't quite touch my heart as much as the utterly inept and rather comic kakapo.

I remember Douglas Adams' book and the tv series based on it, Flame. The kakapo show was excellent. Their inability to adjust to environmental change is, of course, deeply sad but, at the same time, their ungainly and unsuccessful attempts at mating made me chuckle.

The sight and sound of the lonely males booming their love call in the jungly night was touching. Especially as there were so few prospective sexual partners, too far away from each other, and too confused by the undergrowth to reach each other.

Bit like me on the pull, really.

[ 20-03-2002: Message edited by: ZoCher ]
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
11:42 / 20.03.02


Takahe
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
12:04 / 20.03.02
More endangered boids:

Pink pigeon


Mauritius kestrel


red list

[ 20-03-2002: Message edited by: Kit-Cat Club ]
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
12:18 / 20.03.02
The Kakapo! The most inept bird in the world!

It rocks.

I have a pair of socks with Kakapo on them, actually...
 
 
Naked Flame
12:51 / 20.03.02
no umlaut, rothkoid? I thought you liked these birds!

I've just re-read the chapter in Adams' book, in which he details the embryonic stage of the conservation process that seems to have given this particular species a second chance. It's very heartening. It does give us an idea of the sort of timescale conservation work requires: the book was published in 1990. I guess that reinforces the need for more action right now on environmental problems...
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
13:17 / 20.03.02
I know it was linked at the Beeb's site, but Kakapo Recovery is well worth looking at if you want to know more.

Umlaut? Fuh? I'd never seen it written with one when I was living in NZ...
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
13:24 / 20.03.02
Yaay! Big up the weird green flightless massive! I'm chuffed about this.
 
 
m. anthony bro
19:21 / 20.03.02
Kakapo are cool. They're big, dumb and easy to kill, and that's why there's so few of them left.
In Standard 2 (so, I was 8?) , we saw this documentary about them, and they said they couldn't find any girl kakapo, and so, shit, there was a problem.
The takahe thing is interesting too, because they found these two boy takahe and they didn't seem at all interested in girls. They didn't seem to care too much about anything except Madonna and each other.
 
  
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