Berry nice to meet you: bumper fruit crop could lead to huge mating season for NZ's endangered k?k?p?

After a four-year wait, the abundant fruiting of the rimu tree could inspire the world's heaviest parrots to boost their population It has been four long years, but the world's heaviest parrots, the k?k?p?, are finally about to get it on again. The mass fruiting of a native New Zealand tree has triggered breeding season - a rare event conservationists hope will lead to a record number of chicks for the critically endangered bird.K?k?p?, the world's only nocturnal and flightless parrot, were once abundant across New Zealand. But their population plummeted after the introduction of predators such as cats and stoats, and by the 1900s they were nearly extinct. Continue reading...