The kākāpō is the world’s heaviest parrot. It cannot fly, it is nocturnal, and it has a round, owlish face. When New Zealand’s Department of Conservation started its recovery program in 1995, there were 51 left, only 20 of them female.
On September 1, 2026, the department announced that the population had reached 325, a high for the recovery era. The number came after 90 chicks from the 2026 breeding season passed the 150-day mark that counts as independence.
A record year for the kākāpō population
Ninety chicks in one season is a record. “In the early years of recovery, it took 16 years to produce that many chicks,” said Deidre Vercoe, the department’s kākāpō recovery operations manager.
Kākāpō breed only when the rimu trees on their islands produce a heavy crop of fruit, which happens every few years. This season the rimu ripened on two Fiordland islands. According to the Otago Daily Times, 79 females nested, 48 produced living chicks, 32 males fathered them, and 106 of 258 eggs hatched. Ninety of those chicks made it to independence.
“We had a four-year gap between breeding seasons, so it’s fantastic to finally see the population increase after all that time,” Vercoe said. “It’s also a significant milestone for the species, as the last time the population is thought to have exceeded 300 birds may have been as long as 75 years ago.”
What comes next
The department has worked alongside the Ngāi Tahu iwi since 1995, and it credits the result to a large team of staff, volunteers and supporters. Its modeling suggests the next breeding season could come in 2028, a two-year gap instead of four.
Space is now the pressing problem. Kākāpō still live only on predator-free islands, and the birds are running out of room. “After this next breeding season we desperately need another breeding site,” science advisor Andrew Digby told the Otago Daily Times. The species remains critically endangered. But for the first time in living memory, the question is where to put all of them.
Sources
- New Zealand Department of Conservation, Kākāpō population reaches new milestone (Sept. 1, 2026)
- Otago Daily Times, Delight as kākāpō population soars to 325 (Sept. 2026)
