Hot chicks in the city 

Well, its been a whirlwind of domestic travel for the 7 latest additions to the kakapo population.  We left the calm and serene sanctuary of Whenua Hou where the sun was shining and the birds were singing, and winged our way to the top of the South Island where the chicks will spend the next couple of months growing.

It was a rough introduction for the human participants in this transfer - Graeme, Daryl and myself.  Arriving in Nelson in the afternoon we were greeted by weather more akin to the Fiordland home of the kakapo: 100 millimetres of rain, and an evening of thunder and lightning!  That said, the day was flawless in its execution.  The birds travelled in specially made transfer boxes (well actually they were converted pet-carry boxes with heat pads to regulate their temperature during the flights).  One box in particular looked very much like a large explosive device with batteries and wires and flashing lights strapped all over it.  This did not deter the Air New Zealand staff who provided excellent service, extending to escorting us from the plane to a quiet office where we could feed the birds in between flights.  Suffice to say there were some strange looks from the other passengers, "what's in the box?", "kakapo",  "ohhhh" was the general response - a mixture of curiousity and confusion.

Safely ensconced in their new Nelson facility, the birds have been enjoying a routine of four-hourly feeds starting at 7 in the morning and finishing at 11 at night.  They are doing well and making good weight gains; several of them have now hit 500 grams and are getting quite large and feisty at feed time!  Some days they are receiving more than half their body weight depending on how quickly they process their food.  In between feed-times the KPO's and other staff are kept busy with cleaning (lots of cleaning!), data entry and other little jobs.  For us humans, being in a city is quite the novelty, especially when we are used to spending 4 out of 6 weeks on islands.  Working split shifts means there is time to do things we normally don't have the opportunity to, such as mountain biking, lounging in cafes, and general people watching - all exciting stuff for island-dwellers!

We now know the sexes of our seven charges and we have 4 girls and 3 boys, a good balance for the kakapo population in general making it almost 50/50 male to female.  The team is really looking forward to watching these birds grow and develop in the next few weeks as they inch closer to weaning and their eventual release back into the wild.