As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday 18 August 2013

The very rarest of rare birds

Sirocco is coming back to Orokonui to get you hooked on kakapo conservation, writes Karin Ludwig.

If you did not see kakapo superstar Sirocco when he was at Orokonui Ecosanctuary two years ago, get ready to be amazed. Offering the public the only chance to see a living wild kakapo, he is coming back to Orokonui next month (September 6 to October 6).

At his first appearance at Orokonui in September 2011, Sirocco enchanted more than 1600 people and he correctly picked the All Blacks to win the Rugby World Cup.

What tricks will he get up to this time? Sirocco is one of just 124 kakapo left in the world and he is the only kakapo able to be viewed by the public.

As a small chick Sirocco suffered ill-health and had to be hand-raised, which resulted in his imprinting on humans.

He far prefers the company of people and does not seek out kakapo company.

That makes him the perfect kakapo to go on tour to raise awareness for the conservation of his species. And Sirocco really loves it.

He is naturally curious about people and loves interacting with them. The Department of Conservation, in partnership with New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Ltd and Forest and Bird, is charged with bringing this unique species back from the brink of extinction.

The story of the kakapo's decline is common to many native species.

Introduced predators and habitat loss can reduce a species to only a few animals toughing it out in marginal habitat - in the kakapo's case the remote nooks and crannies of Stewart Island and Fiordland.

Thirty years ago, kakapo numbers were at their lowest, with only 51 individuals rescued from predator-infested last refuges.

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