Hi, Quick question - I've been reading about kakapo but have struggled to find a confirmed or estimated maximum age for breeding (possibly as the ages of so many are unknown), does anyone know if this exists? Thanks in advance!
hi Brian, there is no data on maximum breeding age because nobody even knows how long kakapo live for. Of the "wild-caught" birds (i.e. not those bred on the offshore islands) no more than a couple are of known age (and those only because they were found as chicks). Richard Henry was possibly over 100 years old, based on the date of arrival of stoats into Fiordland and the likelihood that no kakapo there were reared to adulthood after that -- and he was still capable of fertilising eggs before he died.
