Are there any captive Kakapo in the UK?

[Pygathrix]

the recent stephen fry show 'last chance to see' covered the breeding efforts of the Kakapo, very interesting but slightly depressing!!
i'm sure it will be on the BBC iplayer if anyone is interested

I'd have to disagree with you. Obviously the numbers are frighteningly low, but if you listened to the very end of the programme they mention that last year's breeding season was the best ever, with the population going from 91 to 125. Still teetering on the edge, but there's some cautious optimism.

A second colony has now been established on Anchor Island. There is expected to be no breeding in 2010. Further details here:

Updates | Kakapo Recovery Programme

 

[bongorob]

I would consider a 37% increase in the wild population to be very good indeed.

 

[zebedee101]

There aren't any captive kakapo anywhere now. Some young were hand-reared at Aukland Zoo (I think) this year after their mothers found too little food in the wild, I think a couple were on show for a few days.
Read all about the kakapo at Home of the Kakapo Recovery Programme | Kakapo Recovery Programme

Alan

This is going to sound weird but I'm coninced that the central park zoo has one when I visited it this summer. It was just as you exited the penguin exhibit. Can a USA member confirm this? I've moved back to the UK so cant double check but I remember doing a double take.

 

[jwer]

You probably saw a kea... can't have been a kakapo.

 

[Chlidonias]

This is going to sound weird but I'm coninced that the central park zoo has one when I visited it this summer. It was just as you exited the penguin exhibit. Can a USA member confirm this? I've moved back to the UK so cant double check but I remember doing a double take.

sorry, there is absolutely zero chance that you saw a kakapo at the zoo

 

[zebedee101]

sorry, there is absolutely zero chance that you saw a kakapo at the zoo

It was a kakapo I swear, riding on the back of a Javan rhino and wearing a duck billed platyps on its head

In all seriousness I knew thats I needed correcting, though every now and then an unexpected oddity turns up!!!! I am ashamed to say that I have no interest in birds at all, I love mammals and reptiles and tend to rush the bird parts of zoos. It was very likely a kea I saw and watching "last chance to see" after reading the original book it must have morphed in my mind - Have you seen a Kakapo in the flesh Chlidonias? Seeing a sumatran rhino at the Bronx zoo as I wasnt aware they had one at the time totally blew me away as I was aware of their rarity and I always love to see something new to me.

Thanks for putting me right

Zeb

 

[tetrapod]

Quite amazed at the aggressive response to this question. Certainly I have seen my fair share of dumber questions on this forum!

As for kagus vs kakapo - I suspect the higher frequency in captivity of the former is probably due to New Caledonia being a dependency of France, rather than under it's own rule.

 

[johnstoni]

and there are a number of kaka in captivity, just to confuse things........

 

[Pertinax]

I would consider a 37% increase in the wild population to be very good indeed.

It is. When I was over there there were still under fifty(known) birds of which less than half(about 19) were females. The species was perilously close to extinction. It still is but I don't think anybody foresaw the healthy increase which has been achieved during the two most successful breeding seasons since then.

One other place which had them in the 1960's era was the Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre on the North Island.

 

[foz]

This is going to sound weird but I'm coninced that the central park zoo has one when I visited it this summer. It was just as you exited the penguin exhibit. Can a USA member confirm this? I've moved back to the UK so cant double check but I remember doing a double take.

This reminds me of when I hallucinated a numbat at newquay zoo...to this day i really haven't a clue what i saw, probably a meerkat

 

[kiang]

The only kaka outside NZ are kept at Stuttgart zoo, they have a group there for many years that was recently supplemented with a few animals direct from NZ a few years ago.