📸 PhotoPhoto: Department of Conservation · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Kakapo
Strigops habroptilus (Kakapo · Kakapo)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) reports that 325 individuals are currently alive, all living in the wild.
- 💡 Known to live for 60–90 years, it may be one of the longest-lived birds (DOC).
- 💡 A male's maximum weight of 4 kg is similar to two or three 1.5 L bottles of water (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The Kakapo is the world's only flightless parrot and the heaviest parrot, a nocturnal species endemic to New Zealand. Today it survives only on predator-free islands and in fenced sanctuaries.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its wings are small and unable to fly, and its breastbone lacks the keel where flight muscles attach. Stiff brown feathers framing its bill, eyes, and ears give it an owl-like face, and its scientific name also means 'owl face.'
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
Its diet is entirely plant-based, eating fruits, seeds, shoots, rhizomes, and pollen according to the season as well as mosses and fungi. It is the only parrot in which males gather at leks to court females.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List CR (2018) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22685245
- • IUCN Red List category CR — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • doi.org — avilist.v2026
- • iucnredlist.org — 22685245
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Sirocco full length portrait.jpg
- • animaldiversity.org — Strigops habroptila
- • doc.govt.nz — kakapo
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Matías Muñoz · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Nestor notabilis)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.