Kakapo season 2015-16 (and then on until the next breeding season)

Pertinax · 12 Mar 2016

OrangePerson said: ↑

From 1896, written by the kakapo's first protector:
Natural history notes from Otago Witness
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Interesting read, particularly the last paragraph. He must have discovered a 'Kakapo garden' or a mating arena 'track and bowl' system- or are they in fact one and the same thing?

Chlidonias · 20 Mar 2016

the last update on how many fertile eggs there are this season is 56 (including the ones that have already hatched, which I think is 29 chicks so far): there have been 28 fertile eggs from Anchor Island, 27 from Codfish Island, and 1 from Little Barrier Island.

Kifaru Bwana · 20 Mar 2016

Chlidonias said: ↑

the last update on how many fertile eggs there are this season is 56 (including the ones that have already hatched, which I think is 29 chicks so far): there have been 28 fertile eggs from Anchor Island, 27 from Codfish Island, and 1 from Little Barrier Island.
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Oh my my man …, dear Chlidonias … that is the best birding news for the year 2016 already. Am I correct to assume we are approaching the number and might soon go over the number of the previous best hatching / rearing season?

Is there any other info source besides the Kakapo Recovery website?
(it seems that one is not so regularly updated, FB seems more reliable and up-to-date there …).

Chlidonias · 20 Mar 2016

Kifaru Bwana said: ↑

Oh my my man …, dear Chlidonias … that is the best birding news for the year 2016 already. Am I correct to assume we are approaching the number and might soon go over the number of the previous best hatching / rearing season?

Is there any other info source besides the Kakapo Recovery website?
(it seems that one is not so regularly updated, FB seems more reliable and up-to-date there …).
Click to expand...

The last really good season was 2009 which ended with 33 surviving chicks (out of 36 hatched). And before that was 2002 with 24 chicks.

The Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/KakapoRecovery) is the most regular source, but also the tweets from Andrew Digby: https://twitter.com/takapodigs

Chlidonias · 24 Mar 2016

the current total of chicks (as of this morning, via the Facebook page) is 32 hatched, 3 dead - so 29 chicks. So I guess that leaves at least 24 eggs still to hatch.

Monty · 25 Mar 2016

Dr Andrew Digby
‏@takapodigs
2 nests wiped out on Anchor by flash-flooding Weds night. Three chicks died; 2 in 1 nest. Gutting, but part of learning about Fiordland
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I just saw on Twitter that 3 chicks were lost due to flash flooding on Wednesday night.

vogelcommando · 6 Apr 2016

General article about the human-intervention in Kakapo-breeding :

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...ing-effort-saving-the-worlds-weirdest-parrot/

Chlidonias · 6 Apr 2016

the last update on the Facebook page (28 March - a week ago) says 38 chicks and another five eggs yet to hatch.

There's a photo of the egg/chick chart here: https://www.facebook.com/KakapoReco...503412107420/1073100889414330/?type=3&theater

Chlidonias · 8 Apr 2016

Chlidonias said: ↑

the last update on the Facebook page (28 March - a week ago) says 38 chicks and another five eggs yet to hatch.
Click to expand...

update yesterday on the Facebook page, over the last week three chicks have died (one each on Codfish, Anchor and Little Barrier) and two eggs have been crushed in the nests. So I guess that makes the total now 35 chicks and three eggs to hatch.

vogelcommando · 8 Apr 2016

Last egg of the year hatched and there are now 38 living chicks, lets hope they all make it !

vogelcommando · 16 Apr 2016

Video-clip of the hatching of a Kakapo :
https://www.facebook.com/KakapoRecovery/videos/1086254988098920/

vogelcommando · 20 Apr 2016

Small up-date :
https://www.facebook.com/KakapoReco...503412107420/1088603544530731/?type=3&fref=nf

vogelcommando · 21 Apr 2016

Article about the 2016-breeding season :
New Zealand conservationists celebrate rare parrot breeding success | Environment | The Guardian

zooboy28 · 28 Apr 2016

One chick died, leaving 36 surviving from this season.

zooboy28 · 28 Apr 2016

Kakapo Going on Display

Kakapo chicks will be on display in Invercargill this weekend (and the rest of the weekends in May), for just $2 per person.

Story here: Department of Conservation to open Invercargill Kakapo facility to the public | Stuff.co.nz

Kakapo are now living in Invercargill and the public can visit the rare parrots for $2 a ticket.

The Department of Conservation is opening its kakapo hand rearing facility to the public on Sunday.

The public will be able to see up to 10 young kakapo chicks who have been hand raised.

Public viewing sessions will be held between 10am and 2pm for all weekends in May, with tickets available for $2 from the Invercargill i-site.

The temporary facility was set up in Esk St west, opposite the Menzies building in the Invercargill CBD, with the help of Department of Corrections community workers.

DOC senior ranger kakapo Jo Ledington said vulnerable kakapo chicks hatched during this year's breeding season were being hand-reared at the site.

"There are 123 kakapo left in the world and we're trying to make every one survive."

Of that number, 58 per cent came from hand reared birds, Ledington said.

For the last few years the kakapo recovery team used a warehouse in Invercargill with plastic walls to house the hand rearing unit, but this year they were kicked out and needed to find a new home, Ledington said

The Invercargill City Council came along and offered a building in the CBD for the kakapo team to use, she said.

The team just wanted a facility where they could show the work they had put into the kakapo recovery effort, Ledington said.

It was not their dream facility, but it was a nice step along the way, she said.

"The dream is a purpose built facility."

There are 10 chicks in the facility, half will be sent back to their homes in the middle of May and the other half will be sent in early June, she said.

In May last year, the Invercargill City Council shelved plans to open the world's only kakapo chick-rearing unit .

Councillors at a meeting in November 2014 agreed to provide $425,000 for the unit, which was to be part of a $1.98 million combined kakapo and tuatara attraction on the north side of the Southland Museum and Art Gallery.

During the meeting in May 2015 when the idea was canned, several councillors expressed concerns at the lack of scientific evidence to prove kakapo would survive in captivity, increasing uncertainty around the total cost of developing the proposed site, and whether the site would be appropriate after the museum was redeveloped.
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Chlidonias · 19 May 2016

Charts showing the matings this season (i.e. which females mated to which males).

Codfish Island: https://www.facebook.com/KakapoReco....1463651467./1103254733065612/?type=3&theater

Anchor Island: https://www.facebook.com/KakapoReco....1463651467./1103254729732279/?type=3&theater

This chart shows the numbers of eggs, hatchings, etc on each island (note Hauturu is Little Barrier Island and Whenua Hou is Codfish Island): https://www.facebook.com/KakapoReco....1463651467./1097229927001426/?type=3&theater

Females: https://www.facebook.com/KakapoReco....1463651467./1097229917001427/?type=3&theater

And finally, females and nestings: https://www.facebook.com/KakapoReco....1463651467./1097229897001429/?type=3&theater

All the charts are from the Kakapo Recovery Facebook page.

Chlidonias · 2 Jun 2016

four chicks have left the Invercargill rearing centre a couple of weeks ago to go to Anchor Island where they will finish weaning and be released. Two are going (or have already gone) this week to Codfish Island. I think that leaves six in Invercargill.

Pertinax · 2 Jun 2016

The Charts, particularly the mating ones, are pretty complicated.

But an excellent result nonetheless if there are still 36 chicks surviving. It does seem an awful lot of eggs are infertile though, somewhere in the region of 50% overall from the various nest islands. I wonder what the reason for that is?

OrangePerson · 3 Jun 2016

Pertinax said: ↑

The Charts, particularly the mating ones, are pretty complicated.

But an excellent result nonetheless if there are still 36 chicks surviving. It does seem an awful lot of eggs are infertile though, somewhere in the region of 50% overall from the various nest islands. I wonder what the reason for that is?
Click to expand...

Not answering the question but coincidentally I came across this article yesterday whilst reading about examination of the failed eggs of the Sheffield urban peregrine nest

Causes of hatching failure in endangered birds

Chlidonias · 3 Jun 2016

it is generally believed that infertility is a problem due to inbreeding. Most surviving kakapo are related - it is thought likely that the Stewart Island population, which makes up the bulk of the remaining birds, was actually the result of an introduction from the South Island. Obviously their lek system makes things more complicated too, if an infertile male hogs the females.

This page Artificial insemination - K?k?p? RecoveryK?k?p? Recovery from the Kakapo Recovery site says

An on-going feature of kākāpō breeding to date has been the high number of infertile eggs. Since 1985, 40% of all eggs laid have been infertile with another 20% of embryos dying early in development. This level of infertility is much higher than that observed in other parrot species; usually around 10-15%. If we can reduce the number of infertile eggs produced, we will produce more kākāpō.

We suspect the underlying reason for this high infertility is inbreeding; most kākāpō from Stewart Island share an unusually high proportion of genes. Some males have a high number of abnormal sperm which could explain the high incidence of infertile eggs and dead embryos.

To try to reduce infertility we have removed some of the poorest performing males from the breeding population.

We know that those females who mate more than once lay significantly more fertile eggs than those that mate only once.
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This recent article Kakapo breeding is 'all go' | Our Changing World | Radio New Zealand' says

However, high levels of infertility are an ongoing problem dogging conservation efforts. “On average only 60 percent of eggs that are laid are fertile, and in the last breeding season, in 2014, only 40 percent of eggs were fertile, which was very disappointing,” Eason says.

While the lack of genetic diversity is related to the problem of infertility, the number of times a female mates has also been shown to be of critical importance, Eason says.

“A female who mates twice with the same male has an improved chance of laying fertile eggs, but if she mates with two different males there is a 90 percent chance that her eggs will be fertile.”
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