July 15, 2004

• The kakapo is a bird out of time. If you look one in its large, round, greeny-brown face, it has a look of serenely innocent incomprehension that makes you want to hug it and tell it that everything will be all right, though you know that it probably will not be. - Douglas Adams.
• Have loved the Kakapo since reading Last Chance to See. Dear fat mad bird.
• The three young female kakapo which died - Aroha, Aurora and Vollie - were hatched in the summer of 2002. Crap! I posted about this brood on MeFi. Still, before 2002 there were only 62 kakapos, so the species is still doing better. Thanks for posting this, gooddoggy.
• Thank you indeed.
• Good post! It makes me upset to see how few of these great birds are left, but I feel slightly better knowing the population had increased and that measures are being taken to preserve them.
• Not surprisingly, this has been headline news in NZ. At least now scientists know what killed them; for the first 24-48 hours, no one knew what the cause of death was. Very scary.
• Wow! I do love parrots, and had never heard of kakapos. Only 83, that makes them so fragile. Thanks to your Department of Conservation for taking such good care of them.
• Parrots are fascinating creatures, and many species live on islands. Island critters -- whether bird, mammal, fish or whatever -- stand at increasing risk of extinction in coming years. Unfortunately few flightless birds are able to withstand encroachments on their nesting and feeding areas by man and mankind's domestic animals. Extinct flightless species include the moa, the great auk, and the dodo, all of which were island dwellers. Additional stress on island creatures can be anticipated from ongoing climate change and human presence.
• path: If you ever get the chance to visit New Zealand, be sure to go to Fiordland so you can meet the sheep-and-car-eating Kea, surely the baddest-arse parrot alive today.
• Hatebeak should perform a requiem for them.
• this is sad. reminds me of ugly chickens
• and even tho it isn't about us, i still feel guilty. and even tho 80 something isn't nearly enough to keep the line going, i still think that we should be able to save 'em. i had a teacher who believed that if the Sequoias couldn't survive outside of that very narrow zone they lived in, then they should die out. Me, I think WE have failed if we can't figure out how to grow anything anywhere. not that anyone asked. or that this comment is relevant.
• There's some great footage of kakapos in the awesome Life Of Birds documentary series BTW. (David Attenborough also tells a sad tale of a lonely male kakapo that would trudge his way up a particular hillside in New Zealand night after night for a number of years. He (the parrot, not David Attenborough) would then fill the valley below with his low booming mating call, summoning the females to him, but night after night, no females would come... Not because his call wasn't enticing enough I'm sure, but because there just weren't any other kakapos left in the area. The lonely male would then have no option but to lumber back down the hillside with nothing but hope of having better luck the following night. After a few years of this, he too disappeared. Geez, did that depress me...)
  
• So sad. Thanks for posting this gooddoggy. I hadn't heard of these wonderful birdies before. I hope they're able to bounce back. (btw, if anyone is allergic to Real Media, Backpack New Zealand has a swf file.)
• thanks gooddoggy, I learneded today. kakapo. Now if only those damned dirty humans would stop breeding for gosh sakes.
• Careless birdy dressed in green Too fat by far, do ye not deem, For runnning swiftly from the scene If trouble chances by. The wingless find it hard to fly. Extinction is a tragedy For which there is no remedy -- Time to rethink your flightless strategy? If sea sloths did it, why not thee?
• This has made me unbearably depressed.
• I hear that. *pours two shots, hands one to Nostril*
• Illness identified and easily treated now that it has been. Yay!
• Thanks for the update!
• Hooray for the veterainary pathologists! Hooray for the kakapos! Thanks to rogerd! [Uncle Nostril, hope you feel better now.]
• Yay! Thanks for the update rodgerd. I've gone from blissfully unaware of to utterly in love with kakapos in one post. Hooray for the kakapos!
• <nitpick> The plural of Kakapo is, in fact, Kakapo, as is the norm in Maori (one Maori, many Maori). </nitpick>
• Oh, and fortunately we've had a bit of practise at this sort of thing, thanks to Don Merton
• And last but not least, one can always sponsor the little buggers.
• Wot is happening? This is so unlike me! Would be worried only I knew way back I care for monkeys as much as kakapos. Feel an ass saying it, but who cares? /ninny times gibbering nitwit
• So what would a number of kakapo be called? A klatch of kakapo? A kluster of kakapo? A kudo of kakapo? Oooo. A koan of kakapo.
• that sounds vaguely naughty.
• A mahalo of kakapo.
• When kakapo falls ill She doesn't get her way, She'd say if she could say: 'Please, I'd rather have a pill! Thanks, but I don't wish to stay Inside this hospital. 'Here there aren't any trees Or shady bits of ground. The sun that's up above Is squarish and not round. I'm tired of swabs and bits of glass -- And I'd rather just fast! 'I'm so tired of staying alone in this room! I do miss my friends and -- I want to go home! Yes, and while I'm on the subject, I want to go boom! Yesyesyes! I want to go boom! Boom! BOOM! As we all do at home Where kakapo life is always sweet And a girl can call her nest her own So you guys in the white coats please pick up your feet, Make tracks for the hills or go stuff some pills, And leave this fat green flightless lady alone.'
• Bees: that has to be your most poingnant to date. FREE THE KAPAPO! Unless it interferes with their health.
• The only thing more delightful than a beeswacky poem is a beeswacky poem about a kakapo. This made my day. Thank you!
• Better news about kakapo.
• In other bird news: Weta stumps up to help Tahi the kiwi
• O kiwi on the forest floor what do ye suppose those wings are for? being a groundling is never easy -- did being airborne make your ancestors queasy?
• BEEEEEs! I'm so happy!
• Yay!!! *Does mad waggle dance* *falls over* *Yay!!*
• *blows a thousand kisses to the Bees! *waggles honky tonk badonkey donk along with Islander
• *hugs the bees* *starts to swell alarmingly from the stings*
• *joins in general rejoicing*
• /glad to see the beesy /still misses the quidsy
• Quid sees your every move. Through beer goggles, maybe, but still sees. Right through your seethrough pullover.
• I like it when she wears that. *goes back to internet "research"*
• YAY!!!! Happy Beesmas! Quid bless us, everyone!
• Quid's back too!!! Woo-hoo!
• Shut up! *shoves fish tick* Where?
• Here.
• *squints and peers through beer glasses The reticent Quid? Why, I thought it was a reticulated Quizzly! Welcome back, Quiddo.
• Kakapo voted Bird of the Year
• 'You are being shagged by a rare parrot'
• *He's going for it*
• It would have been much more embarassing for the poor fellow had he been shagged by a common street parrot.
• Best Rare-Bird Pictures of 2010 Named
• They are SO cute.
• Sexually showy birds age faster
• Don't be messin' with the Red Crowned Crane. HE laughs at your aging buzzard butt.
• This is the worst reproductive strategy in the animal kingdom
• I kept reading that as Kakapoo, but even Kakapo is funny. *points and laughs at silly bird* Seriously, you go, Amazing Science Bird Breeders!