Underrated Animals 2: the Kākāpō, by Verona. B

What if a parrot and an owl had a kid? 

But- what if it couldn’t fly?

And what if it was green?!

This article isn’t about a language learning mascot... It's about:

The Kākāpō! (What… is it?)

Green, flightless, nocturnal, and called the owl parrot-

Sourced from Wikipedia

I'd think birds couldn’t get any weirder. 

These guys are native strictly to New Zealand, where they are considered a critically endangered species. Their estimated population is 244, which, although little, is much more than when the species was first recognised in 1845. 

Hold on. 

We’re experiencing an interruption. 

JW MAC has barged into our room, accusing us of stealing… a red toad?

I can only assume they were talking about Lord Vallen, whom we referenced in our interview with Mrs Dillion. We’ll discuss this later, nothing to do with the greatness that is a Kākāpō. 

Although humans contribute to the diminishing populations of the Kākāpō, another factor is their life cycle. Being born unable to fly makes it hard to avoid introduced predators, and although they can climb, that doesn’t do much for their case. Their breeding cycle is a whole other… everything. The Kākāpō mate every FIVE YEARS. This cycle follows the blooming of the rimu tree, which they eat exclusively in years it's abundant. Basically, they like a certain fruit so much that they only have kids when the fruit is blooming, which is every 3-5 years. 

Adding onto conservation and their mating cycles, the kākāpō actually had a huge boost in recognition by, get this… mating with a man's head. While reporters were talking about the conservation of this species, a kākāpō named Sirocco did something that got the species probably twice the amount of recognition a normal documentary had. This was not the end of Sirocco's fame, however. He is now dubbed New Zealand’s “Official Spokesbird for Conservation” and is still monitored regularly, he is still standing strong, despite the struggle to start a family with a reporter.