WELLINGTON, Nov 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Critically endangered native bird, Kakapo, won New Zealand Bird of the Year 2020, for an unprecedented second time, the event organiser announced today.
The Bird of the Year competition is an annual competition, held by New Zealand’s independent conservation organisation, Forest and Bird, in a bid to raise people’s awareness of New Zealand’s natural birds. The event caught considerable interest from both home and abroad.
Throughout the two-week voting period, the antipodean albatross topped the leader board with the most votes, but the Kakapo bounded into the lead after the preferential voting system was applied.
The Kakapo, a nocturnal, moss-green parrot, is a flightless bird native to New Zealand. After being hunted to near extinction by foreign predators in the 1990’s, the entire Kakapo population was transferred to a number of predator-free New Zealand islands, including Codfish Island, Maud Island and Little Barrier Island.
The intensive conservation efforts helped to grow the Kakapo population from just 50 to 210, all of which carry radio transmitters and are intensively monitored and managed, according to New Zealand Birds Online, supported by the Department of Conservation.
“In a stunning upset, the Kakapo swoops in from behind to claw the title of Bird of the Year 2020, away from competition front runner, the Antipodean albatross,” said the Forest and Bird in a Twitter post.
Kakapo is the first bird in the competition’s history to claim the crown for a second time, after winning the title in 2008.– NNN-AGENCIES
