In 1995, the Department of Conservation and indigenous Maori tribe Ngai Tahu of New Zealand launched a recovery program for the critically endangered flightless parrot, the kakapo, with its population of just 51 birds at serious risk of extinction.
By 2022, numbers had rebounded to 252, but 16 birds died over the past four years.
This January’s mating season is the 13th in the past 30 years, with the bird breeding every two to four years.
“Kakapo are still critically endangered so we’ll keep working hard to increase numbers,” said Deidre Vercoe, the department’s kakapo recovery operations manager.
Only 236 of the rotund and regal-looking green parrots remain in three breeding populations on some of New Zealand’s most remote southern islands.
That includes 83 breeding age females, with high hopes this year could bring the most hatched chicks since records began.
The first chicks are expected to hatch in mid-February.