The Kakapo : A rare Bird

The kakapo is a large, flightless parrot from New Zealand and one of the rarest birds of all, with only 124 individuals alive today. The main reason for its decline is predation by introduced mammals, particularly feral cats.

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The New Zealand parrot superfamily (Strigopoidea) consists of three genera of parrots, Nestor, Strigops and the fossil Nelepsittacus. The genus Nestor consists of the Kea, Kākā, Norfolk Island Kākā and Chatham Island Kākā, while the genus Strigops contains the iconic Kākāpō. All extant species are endemic to New Zealand. The species of the genus Nelepsittacus were endemics of the main islands, while the two extinct species of the genus Nestor were found at the nearby oceanic islands like Chatham Island of New Zealand, and Norfolk Island and Phillip Island of Australia. The modern common species names, Kea, Kākā and Kākāpō, are the same as the original Māori names.
The Norfolk Kaka and the Chatham Kaka have become extinct in recent times, while the extinct species of the genus Nelepsittacus have been extinct for 16 million years. All extant species, the Kākāpō, Kea, and the two subspecies of the Kākā, are threatened. Human activity caused the two extinctions and the decline of the other three species. Settlers introduced invasive species, such as pigs and possums, which eat the eggs of ground nesting birds, and additional declines have been caused by hunting for food, killing as agricultural pests, habitat loss, and introduced wasps.
The family diverged from the other parrots around 82 million years ago when New Zealand broke off from Gondwana, while the ancestors of the genera Nestor and Strigops diverged from each other between 60 and 80 million years ago.