Biggest Kākāpō Breeding Season

About this episode

This episode discusses the record-breaking Kākāpō breeding season of 2026, highlighting chick health and recovery efforts.

DOC’s Kākāpō Recovery Programme says that the 2026 kākāpō breeding season is officially the biggest on record, and that all chicks have now hatched. At least 256 eggs were laid in 80 nests, of which at least 106 hatched. There are currently 99 chicks alive, three of which are being treated at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital for various health problems. The oldest chick, Tīwhiri-A1-2026, is 46-days old and weighs 1.8 kg, while the youngest chick, Awarua-A3-2026, weighs 26 grams at 2-days old. Operations manager Deidre Vercoe says that preliminary sexing results show that about 40 percent of the chicks are female, and that rangers are starting to give the older chicks a permanent microchip for identification. Send any Kākāpō Files questions and comments to kakapo@rnz.co.nz. In this episode: 00:00 – Introduction 01:16 – Deidre Vercoe with final nest and egg numbers 05:41 – Final chick hatching numbers 11:09 – Planning ahead 13:45 – Dunedin Wildlife Hospital vet Dr Lisa Argilla 20:32 – Rimu fruiting & its role in breeding 27.30 – Supplementary feeding on Whenua Hou 32:10 - Closing credits … Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

People in this episode

Guests: Deidre Vercoe, Dr Lisa Argilla

Topics covered

• Kākāpō breeding
• wildlife recovery
• chick health
• nesting statistics
• species conservation

Keywords

• Kākāpō
• breeding season
• chicks
• Dunedin Wildlife Hospital
• DOC
• nesting
• species recovery

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: DOC

Places: Dunedin Wildlife Hospital, Whenua Hou

More episodes of Kākāpō Files II

• Kākāpō Adoption Birds · May 18, 2026 · 39 min
• Kākāpō Chicks Growing Up · May 4, 2026 · 34 min
• Kākāpō Island Diary · April 20, 2026 · 36 min
• Kākāpō Birth Notices · March 23, 2026 · 30 min
• Lots of Kākāpō Babies · March 9, 2026 · 31 min
• Kākāpō Baby Boom · February 23, 2026 · 21 min