| [00:00.00] | It's a parrot, |
| [00:01.14] | and weighing up to four kilos, |
| [00:03.48] | it's the world's heaviest. |
| [00:05.85] | And yes, you've guessed it, |
| [00:07.51] | it can't fly. |
| [00:09.95] | Meet the kakapo. |
| [00:12.16] | Too heavy and short-winged to get airborne, |
| [00:14.76] | it climbs trees instead. |
| [00:17.12] | Kakapo were once one of the most successful |
| [00:19.45] | and abundant herbivores in New Zealand, |
| [00:21.80] | the Kiwi equivalent of our rabbit. |
| [00:23.76] | In 1899, explorer Charlie Douglas wrote, |
| [00:27.04] | ''They could be caught in the moonlight by simply shaking the tree |
| [00:30.49] | or bush until they tumbled to the ground, |
| [00:33.08] | like shaking down apples.'' |
| [00:34.79] | Its favourite food is up above, |
| [00:37.04] | the tiny seeds of the rimu tree. |
| [00:39.85] | This fruit fuels kakapo reproduction |
| [00:42.93] | and they only breed when the trees produce a bumper crop, |
| [00:46.16] | so about once every four years. |
| [00:48.82] | Kakapo breed slower than any other bird, |
| [00:51.97] | but they also live longer, |
| [00:54.24] | sometimes more than a hundred years. |
| [00:57.24] | The male's "song'' is as peculiar as the bird itself. |
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