New diet to boost kakapo bird
The Kakapo bird is the largest of all parrot species
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Wednesday, 15, Aug 2007 02:14
New Zealand and Scottish researchers are creating a new diet for one of the world's strangest and most endangered birds in an attempt to boost its numbers.
Nocturnal and plant-eating, the kakapo is the largest of all parrot species and used to be found in large numbers across New Zealand.
But habitat destruction, ecological changes and the introduction of new predators meant the bird's numbers fell dramatically to just 51 in 1995.
Hindering the kakapo's return to its previous numbers is its unusual eating habits. The bird breeds every two to six years when fruit is in bloom on pink pine and rimu trees, which they feed their young on.
During the rest of the time the kakapo's diet consists of grasses, leaves and herbs which lack the nutrients it needs to be able to breed.
In an attempt to overcome this, researchers from Glasgow University and the New Zealand Department of Conservation produced a dietary supplement with the nutrients its diet is usually lacking.
These nutrients are thought to be vital if the bird is to lay good quality eggs.
"Kakapo had been reluctant to breed, and when we analysed their food we suspected that it was their diet that was to blame," said University of Glasgow professor of Zoology David Houston.
The researchers found that female birds fed the supplement laid significantly more eggs than those that did not.
A total of 67 eggs were laid in 2002, the first year in which the new diet was trialled.
Although the recovery of the kakapo numbers is expected to be a slow process, the researchers behind the latest trial believe it to be an important step to achieving success.