![\"Professor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764704037843.jpg\")
<\/p>\nK\u0101k\u0101p\u014d may be about to have their biggest breeding season since records began.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Professor Jacqueline Beggs with a soft toy k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d. Photo Rose Davis.<\/p>\n
University of Auckland Professor Jacqueline Beggs, who chairs the K\u0101k\u0101p\u014d Recovery Group, says the team is currently hoping for chicks from all 84 breeding-age females.<\/p>\n
This would significantly boost the population of the critically endangered, flightless native parrot, which currently sits at 237 birds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the\u00a0k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d\u00a0recovery programme began in 1995,\u00a0they\u00a0were on the brink of extinction with\u00a0only\u00a051 birds, and just 20 of those were female.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, the stars are aligning for the best breeding season since records began in 1977,\u201d says Beggs, who is co-director of the University\u2019s Centre for Climate, Biodiversity and Society, Ng\u0101 Ara Whet\u016b.<\/p>\n
The prediction that plenty of eggs will be laid this summer is based on the amount of fruit on rimu trees and all the female parrots being in good breeding condition \u2013 a rare event.<\/p>\n
The last big breeding season was in 2022, when 57 chicks fledged.<\/p>\n
Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland contributes key research on k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d, supporting planning for the long-term recovery of the species.<\/p>\n
Professor Mike Taylor\u2019s lab produced the first detailed description of k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d gut microbiota, helping conservationists understand how diet, antibiotics, and environmental stressors influence their health.<\/p>\n
Dr Caroline Lees has developed tools to help predict how different breeding and site-management scenarios would affect k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d population growth and extinction risk. These models are helping assess shifts in rimu fruiting due to climate change, and supporting the Department of Conservation\u2019s planning for translocating the parrots to new sites.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764703981721.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d called Boss on Whenua Hou, Codfish Island. Photo: Jake Osbourne, Department of Conservation.<\/p>\n
Scientists don\u2019t yet understand how, but k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d sense when rimu trees are about to fruit heavily and that signal triggers the start of a bumper breeding season, says Beggs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year\u2019s counts showed the amount of fruit setting on rimu branches is extraordinarily high.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need the fruit available for when their chicks hatch,\u201d says Beggs.<\/p>\n
If the parrots have detected the rimu fruit cue, the males will kick off an elaborate mating ritual this month.<\/p>\n
K\u0101k\u0101p\u014d are the only lek breeders among New Zealand\u2019s native birds and the only known lek breeding parrots in the world. Lek breeding means the males put on displays for females, who choose one or more mates, then raise the chicks alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe males congregate up high and send out booming calls that attract the females, who decide who does the best booming and who they want to do the deed with,\u201d says Beggs.<\/p>\n
Mating usually begins around Christmas and peaks in January, with eggs laid in February and March taking about a month to hatch.<\/p>\n
By September or October 2026, the chicks sparked by this year\u2019s rimu fruiting will reach independence and be officially added to the parrot\u2019s population.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long haul and lots can go wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome years, the rimu fruit fails to ripen due to rogue weather or other factors and the k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d will then abandon their nests.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Tuterakipaua](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764703999757.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Tuterakipaua the k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d on Anchor Island. Photo: Jake Osbourne, Department of Conservation.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s great news that k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d numbers are likely to increase dramatically, finding new areas the population can expand into poses a challenge, says Beggs.<\/p>\n
At present, the nocturnal parrots are in four predator-free sanctuaries, three of which are on offshore islands.<\/p>\n
However, the island havens are reaching capacity, so now some of the ground-dwelling parrots will be relocated to areas where predators have been reduced, but not eliminated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re moving from a species in intensive care toward a future where k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d can establish natural populations in different areas. That\u2019s scary and exciting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something we could barely imagine when the k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d recovery programme began in the 1990s,\u201d says Beggs.<\/p>\n
Once k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d reach high numbers in small, predator-free areas, the risk\u00a0of fighting between males\u00a0and nest\u00a0interference\u00a0increases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also don\u2019t want all our eggs in one basket \u2013 we need to start spreading the population, so if disease gets into one island, it doesn\u2019t wipe out the whole population.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s particularly important, because the genetic bottleneck around 1995, when only 51 birds remained, has probably weakened their immunity.<\/p>\n
K\u0101k\u0101p\u014d might live for as long as 90 years and fossil records show they once lived throughout mainland New Zealand, says Beggs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a presence about them that commands respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach one has its own personality and they\u2019re so internationally unique \u2013 everything you think a parrot is going to do, k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d do differently,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
With enough control of predators, such as stoats, feral cats and rats, hopes are high that these \u201ccool birds\u201d won\u2019t become extinct after all.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the few critically endangered species in the world that has had its trajectory turned around.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why I do this work \u2013 it\u2019s a story of hope,\u201d says Beggs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"K\u0101k\u0101p\u014d may be about to have their biggest breeding season since records began. Professor Jacqueline Beggs with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[103362,103361,103360,85,46,141,4855,103359,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-175810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-biodiversity-and-society","9":"tag-centre-for-climate","10":"tag-faculty-of-science","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-science-and-technology","15":"tag-sustainable-impact","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}