How they鈥檙e saving the kakapo
It鈥檚 a flightless bird close to extinction, but the kakapo recovery team is on the case.
It鈥檚 a flightless bird on the edge of extinction, but a team in New Zealand is trying to stop it from going the way of the dodo.
The kakapo is a large parrot that was once common in New Zealand. But its inability to fly, strong smell and habit of freezing when attacked made it easy to hunt for both human settlers and the animals they introduced. By the mid-1990s there were only 51 left.
The remaining birds were moved to an island and a recovery operation began 鈥 looking at every aspect of the animals鈥 lives to try to boost the population.
Twenty-five years on and the kakapo are at the centre of an elaborate breeding programme. There are monitors that measure the jiggle of mating birds, 鈥渟mart eggs鈥 to replace the ones removed for rearing and even a sperm-carrying drone.
People Fixing the World looks at what it takes to bring a bird back from the brink.
Image: A kakapo (Jake Osborne / New Zealand Department of Conservation)
Presenter: Tom Colls
Reporter: Alison Ballance
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Broadcasts
- Tue 10 Mar 2020 03:06GMT大象传媒 World Service Europe and the Middle East & West and Central Africa only
- Tue 10 Mar 2020 04:06GMT大象传媒 World Service Online & UK DAB/Freeview only
- Tue 10 Mar 2020 06:06GMT大象传媒 World Service Australasia, Americas and the Caribbean & South Asia only
- Tue 10 Mar 2020 07:06GMT大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa & East Asia only
- Tue 10 Mar 2020 15:06GMT大象传媒 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Tue 10 Mar 2020 18:06GMT大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia & West and Central Africa only
- Tue 10 Mar 2020 20:06GMT大象传媒 World Service Australasia, Online, Americas and the Caribbean, UK DAB/Freeview & Europe and the Middle East only
- Tue 10 Mar 2020 21:06GMT大象传媒 World Service News Internet & East Asia only
- Mon 16 Mar 2020 00:06GMT大象传媒 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
People fixing the world on YouTube
Watch stories of people changing their world on the World Service English YouTube channel