The kākāpō (or kākāpō, or kakāpō, or kākāpō, its original Māori name) is one of the rarest birds in the world: only a couple of hundred specimens survive, all in New Zealand, and we have been trying to protect and revitalize its population for more than a century, with results that are not always appreciable.
2026, however, could finally be a good year for the kakapo: as announced by the New Zealand government’s Department of Conservation, the kakapo’s breeding season has begun – and it is the first time in four years that this has happened.
All the quirks of the kacapa. The kakapo is a parrot, the heaviest in the world to be precise, and its size prevents it from flying. It is also one of the longest-lived birds in the world (it can live up to a century!) and is also the only polygynous parrot, in which males compete for females in arenas called leks. Above all, the kakapo reproduces very rarely: its fertile season occurs only every two to four years, when each female produces and raises a single chick.
After four years. This reproductive slowness is one of the reasons why the kakapo population dropped to 50 specimens in the 1990s, and is still today at 236 individuals, of which only 83 are reproductive females. When it decides to reproduce, the kakapo does so by synchronizing with the flowering of a large local conifer, the rimu: the last time this happened was 2022. Now, four years later, the tree is producing fruit again and the kakapo is, so to speak, getting busy.
A good start. The fact that there are just over 200 kakapo throughout the world, and all in New Zealand, allows us to follow them very closely: each specimen is equipped with a radio transmitter that keeps an eye on its movements and activities. This is how the New Zealand government discovered that this year the females are laying eggs, which should hatch around February: according to initial estimates, the one arriving could be the largest collective clutch of the last thirty years, which will clearly replenish the population.
According to experts, however, all this is not enough: the kakapo still need constant monitoring and targeted interventions, because they are still in a situation of survival and not prosperity. The aim is for wild populations to become self-sufficient and remain healthy, without further human intervention: a good breeding season is not enough, although it is undoubtedly a good start.
