Today I\u2019m putting up an animal cam in lieu of Readers\u2019 Wildlife Photos because I need to conserve the latter: I have only about two batches left. If you have some, send them in!<\/p>\n
But this is one of the best animal cams I have seen, for it shows in real time a very rare animal: a brooding female k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d <\/a>and her chick\u00a0(Strigops habroptilus). This is the world\u2019s only flightless parrot, and is found in New Zealand, where it evolved in the absence of mammalian predators. Now it\u2019s highly endangered, with only a few hundred individuals left, but an intensive conservation effort by New Zealand is bringing them back. This effort includes putting all k\u0101k\u0101p\u014ds onto islands where potential predators birds have been removed. As Wikipedia notes,<\/p>\n The k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d is critically endangered; the total known population of living individuals is 236 (as of 2026).\u00a0Known individuals are named, tagged and confined to four small New Zealand islands, all of which are clear of predators;\u00a0however, in 2023, a reintroduction to mainland New Zealand (Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari<\/a>) was accomplished. \u00a0Introduced mammalian predators, such as cats, rats,\u00a0ferrets, and\u00a0stoats\u00a0almost wiped out the k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d. All conservation efforts were unsuccessful until the K\u0101k\u0101p\u014d Recovery Programme began in 1995.<\/p>\n Newsweek,<\/a> via reader Ginger K, offers us a link to a live kakapo cam. This is the only such bird ever to be livestreamed with a cam, and here\u2019s some information about the video below from Newsweek. I find the feed mesmerizing, and watched the female sleep for a while last night (it was day in New Zealand), sitting on her fluffy white chick and occasionally grooming herself and the chick.<\/p>\n Newsweek:<\/p>\n A quiet underground nest on a remote island off New Zealand\u2019s coast is captivating viewers around the globe as the world\u2019s largest parrot species is livestreamed.<\/p>\n The\u00a0YouTube\u00a0<\/a>livestream,\u00a0K\u0101k\u0101p\u014d Cam<\/a>, offers a continuous view inside the nest of Rakiura, a 24-year-old female k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d\u2014one of just 236 left worldwide. Rakiura has been living beneath a r\u0101t\u0101 tree on Codfish Island, also known as Whenua Hou, off the country\u2019s southern coast, where she hatched two chicks this breeding season.<\/p>\n Since January, the footage has offered unpolished, intimate glimpses of the nocturnal, flightless parrot. Rakiura shuffles in the nest, preens her green feathers, settles her body protectively over her chick, and occasionally leaves under the cover of darkness to forage before returning to feed. At times, the screen shows little movement at all\u2014just the soft rise and fall of a bird resting, giving viewers a rare, real\u2011time look at a species most will never see in person.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the only camera in a k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d nest this season, and the only nest we\u2019ve ever streamed live,\u201d Deidre Vercoe, operations manager for K\u0101k\u0101p\u014d at New Zealand\u2019s Department of Conservation (DOC), told\u00a0Newsweek. \u201cK\u0101k\u0101p\u014d Cam provides insights that help guide us to support their recovery, while also giving people around the world a chance to connect with this incredible species.\u201d<\/p>\n . . .While most female k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d choose new nesting spots each breeding cycle, Vercoe said Rakiura has returned to the same site every season\u2014allowing conservationists to reinforce the nest and carefully plan a reliable camera setup months in advance through the DOC\u2019s K\u0101k\u0101p\u014d Recovery team.<\/p>\n Hands\u2011on fieldwork began in October 2025 and will continue for most of the year, involving around 30 DOC staff, specialist support teams and 105 volunteers, each donating two weeks of their time.<\/p>\n The team also added drainage and a small access hatch to protect eggs and chicks without disturbing her natural behavior.<\/p>\n The camera was first trialed during the 2022 breeding season, but this year\u2019s stream went live in time to capture egg\u2011laying and hatching for the first time.<\/p>\n Rakiura successfully hatched two genetically important chicks on February 24 and March 2, though the older one was later transferred to a foster mother so she could focus on raising the remaining chick, Nora\u2011A2\u20112026, now the star of the livestream. The team will check on the chick every three days until it is one month old.<\/p>\n Okay, enough information. Watch below live NOW. If mother Rakiura is out, you\u2019ll still see the chick. When I put this up at 8:15 a.m. Chicago time, it will be 2:15 a.m. in New Zealand, and it looks like mom is still sleeping.\u00a0 Watch from time to time so you can see the chick. She\u2019s very solicitous of it and grooms it often.<\/p>\n Lagniappe: a tweet on this season, a great one for baby parrots, from New Zealand Conservation<\/p>\n And one of the best animal videos ever: a male k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d, Sirocco, shagging biologist Mark Carwardine while Stephen Fry looks on and narrates. This was from the BBC show \u201cLast Chance to See,\u201d about endangered species:<\/p>\n When I went to New Zealand a while back, I really wanted to see these birds, but you really can\u2019t: you need a good reason to get to the islands where k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d are kept. To do that, you have to be somehow involved in their conservation. You can volunteer to live on the island for several months and help monitor the birds, but that\u2019s a big commitment just to see them. However, if you want to help save them, you can donate here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today I\u2019m putting up an animal cam in lieu of Readers\u2019 Wildlife Photos because I need to conserve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-337448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}