I'm 99% sure that he meant that the animals were starting to reproduce, and it would be an eventful year for the hatchings, egglaying, and what not.
If I interpret the Kakapo Recovery Facebook page correctly, a total of approximately 149 eggs are laid sofar, of which about 64 were fertile. Some fertile eggs were lost, but 8 have already hatched and all eggs were removed to stimulate the females to lay a second nest. Mating has already occured and one female already lay again. Not bad for a population of just 147 birds. This is starting to look like an incredible year for the Kakapo!
The podcast is from Radio New Zealand and the series is covering the news about the current breeding season for this unique parrot, which may turn out to be the best on record. Listen or download from Kākāpō Files
Looking again it also says that one adult bird, PiriPiri, has died. This is the Kakapo I saw on Maud Island in the early 90's when he was being recaptured for a check.
Currently they have 22 chicks and one that died. They have been closing nests and incubating eggs in the hope the females will lay again because they started early. There are still 36 or 38 known fertile eggs (not sure if this number included the 2 more recent hatches because of the way it was posted) but they hope for more because more mating is occurring.
‘Party parrot’ is a real, critically-endangered bird. He needs a lot of help. 52 chicks out of 218 eggs
Yes!!!!! What a great breeding achievement so early on! Hopefully, some second clutch eggs are yet to hatch!
110 fertile eggs and another 10 to check for fertility in next few weeks! 57 live chicks out of 61 hatched. Another 18 viable eggs still to hatch. 34 chicks on Anchor + and another 23 still being handreared!!! Some kakapo females have been given 3 chicks ... a first! The rimu fruiting is extraordinary and most chicks out in nest are the fattest ever! From newest podcast of 15.3.2019!!!!
Kakapo Recovery is now reporting 72 chicks out of 79 hatched as of March 28. Also 6 more eggs confirmed fertile and another unknown to be confirmed.
Article about the 2019-breeding season : Critically endangered kākāpō – the world's fattest parrot – has record breeding season
article with update -75 chicks and techniques for breeding/management Creating a high-tech island to save one of the world’s rarest birds
There has been an outbreak of aspergillosis which has already killed a number of birds. At the time of this article from 15th May (Worrying times for kākāpō), three chicks and one adult bird (the famous female Hoki) had died from aspergillosis over the past week and three other birds (a chick and two adult males) had died from unrelated causes over the past fortnight. The remaining population at the time of the article was 144 adults and 72 chicks. A tweet from Andrew Digby (Dr Andrew Digby (@takapodigs) | Twitter) from 21 May says that thirteen Kakapo are at Auckland Zoo's hospital, one of which (an adult female, Huhana) was not expected to survive - she was euthanised on 23rd May, leaving 142 adults.* On 25 May (yesterday) he says there are now 22 birds on the mainland for treatment. *Noting the discrepancy between this 142 figure and the 144 figure in the paragraph above, I think this is because another bird is being treated as dead after not being seen for several years, making that one the 143rd bird.
Here's another article from today: Thirty kākāpō in hospital as fungus decimates population No more birds have died in the last week, but there are now thirty birds in care on the mainland. At least ten of those birds do have aspergillosis.
