<\/a><\/p>\n

We keep talking about species of Australia and I feel bad for the beautiful country just south east of Australia. I am of course talking about New Zealand!\u00a0 It looks like a great place to find intriguing animals yet it seems like we hardly talk about it.\u00a0 Today is going to change all of that as we are going to discuss the Kakapo which in the wild is only found in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Oh, so what is a Kakapo!\u00a0 Well, obviously it is a bird!\u00a0 Didn’t you look at the picture above? Okay, I will stop being a smart alec. The kakapo is a flightless, nocturnal parrot. In fact it is the largest species of Parrot in the world, weighing between 2-4 kg (4.5-9 lbs).\u00a0 It is the only parrot species that I know of which is flightless and nocturnal.\u00a0 This is a very interesting bird.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the kakapo is critically endangered with only 125 living birds left in the wild.\u00a0 The kakapo use to flourish in New Zealand since they didn’t have to worry about mammalian predators back in the day. Without having any predators, the kakapo had no need to evolve any self-defense mechanisms.\u00a0 The absence of these mammalian predators may also be the reason why this particular bird evolved to be flightless.\u00a0 There was just no need for them to worry about being eaten.\u00a0 Once mammals starting being introduced to the islands of New Zealand, these defenseless birds were no match for the predators.\u00a0 I guess you could say it was like taking candy from a baby.\u00a0 Today, efforts have been made to transfer some of these endangered but maginificent bird species to islands lacking mammalian predators.\u00a0 The way I see it is that those 120 birds had better find a shortcut to evolution if they want to remain living in this world.<\/p>\n

Well folks, today was just a quick Fact about the Kakapo.\u00a0 I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you again tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We keep talking about species of Australia and I feel bad for the beautiful country just south east of Australia. I am of course talking about New Zealand!\u00a0 It looks like a great place to find intriguing animals yet it seems like we hardly talk about it.\u00a0 Today is going to change all of that as we are going to discuss the Kakapo which in the wild is only found in New Zealand. Oh, so what is a Kakapo!\u00a0 Well, obviously it is a bird!\u00a0 Didn’t you look at the picture above? Okay, I will stop being a smart alec. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4024],"tags":[348,4029,549,547,550,4025,548,258],"yoast_head":"\n