The
kakapo is down to its last 147 individuals. Now, scientists are using fitness
trackers and semen-carrying drones to help the bird reproduce.
BY SARAH
FELDBERG
PUBLISHED MARCH
5, 2019
INSIDE A
HUT on remote Whenua Hou/Codfish Island off the coast of New Zealand’s
South Island, there’s a chart on the refrigerator depicting the future of a
species.
That
species is the kakapo, an unusual, flightless parrot endemic
to New Zealand. The chart lists
every breeding female kakapo on the planet—50 of them, with names like Pearl,
Marama, and Hoki—and the status of their eggs: smiley faces for fertile eggs,
straight lines for infertile ones, wings and legs for hatched chicks, and Xs
for those that have died.
In the
hopes of more smiley faces getting wings and fewer getting Xs, a team of
scientists, rangers, and volunteers are working around the clock during the
current breeding season, using 3D-printed smart eggs, activity trackers, and a
sperm-toting drone nicknamed the "cloaca courier" to turn a record
breeding year into a repopulation milestone and help this beloved bird step
back from the brink.
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