Kakapo Breeding Season Off To a Strong Start

06/03/2008 13:39:09 February 2008. The breeding season of the kakapo, New Zealand’s most endangered bird, is off to a great start with at least two fertile eggs having already been laid on Codfish Island and two female birds, previously thought to be too young, also laying eggs.

Conservation Minister Steve Chadwick says these are the first eggs laid by kakapo for three years, and it is hugely exciting that two six-year-old kakapo have laid eggs, because it was previously thought that the minimum breeding age was nine years.

‘This discovery is a great surprise for the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) Kakapo Recovery Team, and although the eggs may not be fertile, it’s big news that these birds could lay eggs at all.’

Fertile Eggs
The recovery team has also confirmed that two kakapo eggs laid elsewhere on Whenua Hou or Codfish Island are fertile. Kakapo are extremely slow breeders and these are the first eggs laid since 2005.

Steve Chadwick says this could be the start of a great breeding season for this species, and that everything that can be done to improve the survival rate of the chicks will be done.

‘In the last breeding season in 2005, the fertility rate was just 58 per cent so the recovery team will be making every effort to successfully hatch the current batch of eggs.’

24 Hour Nest Watch
To give these chicks the best chance of survival, volunteers will be keeping a nightly vigil at their nests, making sure the female incubates the eggs properly and even using heat pads to make sure they don’t go cold.

The Kakapo Recovery Programme is a partnership between the Department of Conservation, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society and Rio Tinto Alcan Ltd (formerly Comalco New Zealand Ltd).