Photo by Don Merton, © 1998. All rights reserved.
Kakapo

            Before humans arrived in New Zealand, Kakapo were found throughout the North, South, and Stewart Islands. They fell easy prey to introduced predators such as rats, cats, dogs and stoats – as well as man - and by the mid-1970s only 18 old males were known to survive in remote parts of Fiordland. By 1989 all but one of these had died – the one survivor had been relocated in 1975 to a safe island refuge where he still lives. Fortunately, in 1977 about 150 birds were discovered in an isolated part of southern Stewart Island. However, feral cats were quickly destroying this remote, last natural population. As an emergency action, again under the leadership of Don Merton, 61 birds were translocated to several predator-free offshore islands where they were safe from introduced mammalian carnivores.  Although no natural population remains, numbers are now increasing and  the future looks bright for this giant, flightless parrot - in no small measure due to the creative and diligent efforts of Merton and his colleagues.