Kakapo

The Kakapo was elected NZ's Bird of The Year for 2020, and is the first bird to be voted in twice!

To celebrate this I have made this Kakapo skin.

Kakapo are a large, nocturnal flightless parrot endemic to NZ. They are currently restricted to offshore island sanctuaries where breeding programmes are taking place to help bring the population back to where it should be.

The Kakapo had no natural predators as all native predator species in NZ are diurnal and the mossy colours of the Kakapo allowed it to camouflage perfectly into the NZ forests. Because of it's lack of predators it doesn't fear much and has no natural defenses. They also only have 1 chick every 2 - 3 years. This meant that when invasive predators were introduced, they were essentially wiped out.

Today Kakapo are suffering from a number of genetic diseases because they're all descendants of a small surviving population. This means there is little genetic diversity.