< RETURN HOME

The New Zealand Kakapo or Owl Parrot

Fast Facts:

• Species Name: Stringops habroptilus
  
  Common Name: Owl Parrot
  
  Diet: Grass and other plants, vegetables, fruits, and seeds.
  
  Habitat: Open, mossy glades in beech forests; open hillsides; mountains; cliffs.
  
  Special Distinction: Only flightless parrot in the world.
  
  Major threats: Introduced mammal predators including rats, stoats, ferrets, and feral cats, all of which which find the birds easy prey.
  
  Number left in the world: 86
  
  

  ---

Until humans came to New Zealand about 700 years ago, the only mammals on the islands were bats. Since they didn't have any predators to fly away from, many birds, including the Kakapo, lost their ability to fly. The Kakapos became bigger and heavier and began to spend most of their time on the ground. Kakapos can still climb trees using their feet and by pulling themselves up with their bills.

Maori legend speaks of the whawharua, a secret playground for kakapos where they nightly come together to perform bizarre rituals. In 1974, when scientists began a serious search for the birds, what they encountered almost convinced them that the legend was true. Neatly kept trails pockmarked by shallow depressions in the earth cut through the dense vegetation of the Kakapos' territory. The trails formed a sort of "Kakapo nightclub."

During the three-month mating season male Kakapos use the hollowed basins as mini-amphitheatres to project their deep, powerful songs up to three miles to attract females.

There are 86 Kakapos alive today in three small island refuges. Each individual has its own name, many of them suggested by New Zealand children.

Learn more about the Kakapo in the October 2002 issues of National Geographic and Smithsonian Magazine.

The Kakapo exhibit was designed, prepared and written by Hillary Klofkorn, a student staff-member of the Museum from Kirkville, MO.

The specimen was donated to the Museum by William Temple Hornaday. It is one of 125 different kinds of birds and mammals Hornaday gave the University in 1886 to expand the fledgling Museum's meager teaching collection. Today, many of the Hornaday birds and mammals are among the rarest of the specimens the Museum holds.

A Biography of William Temple Hornaday