There are only 236 kākāpō left on Earth. As of this month, there are several dozen more.
New Zealand's Department of Conservation has confirmed a record-breaking 2026 breeding season for the kākāpō — the world's only flightless, nocturnal parrot — with **59 healthy chicks hatched** by early March, and more arriving. Conservationists have described it as potentially the most successful season in the species' recorded history.
The reason? A rare and extraordinary event: a "mega-mast" of rimu berries.
**Why Rimu Berries Change Everything**
Kākāpō don't breed on a fixed cycle. They breed only when there is enough food — specifically when the native rimu tree (Dacrydium cupressinum) produces a mass fruiting event, known as "masting." These events happen every two to four years, triggered by warm summer temperatures. In 2026, something unusual happened: all three of the kākāpō's predator-free island sanctuaries — Whenua Hou (Codfish Island), Pukenui (Anchor Island), and Te Kākahu-o-Tamatea (Chalky Island) — experienced a simultaneous mega-mast.
"When the berries are there, they go for it," said one DOC ranger managing the islands. "And this year, the berries were everywhere."
Rimu berries are nutritionally essential for breeding. They provide the vitamin D and calcium kākāpō females need to produce eggs and raise chicks. Without them, females don't even enter breeding condition. With them, the islands come alive.
**From 51 to 236 — A Conservation Story Decades in the Making**
The kākāpō's situation in the 1990s was desperate. By 1995, fewer than 51 birds existed — the entire global population of a species that had roamed New Zealand's forests for millions of years. Predators introduced by European settlers (rats, stoats, feral cats) had devastated them. Their slow reproduction cycle and ground-nesting habits made them uniquely vulnerable.
New Zealand's response was radical: relocate every surviving kākāpō to offshore predator-free islands, establish a 24/7 monitoring programme, and supplement nutrition during breeding seasons. Every egg is catalogued. Every chick is weighed. Rangers spend breeding seasons camping on the islands, checking nests in the early hours by headlamp.
It has worked. By the start of 2026, the population stood at **236 adults** — more than four times the 1995 low.
**What the 2026 Season Looks Like**
As of early March 2026 (with the season still ongoing): - **140 fertile eggs** identified across the island sanctuaries - **59 healthy chicks** confirmed hatched - **52 chicks confirmed directly observed**, with 7 more identified via remote monitoring technology - **78 fertile eggs known in February**, with additional nests confirmed since
By the end of the season, conservationists are cautiously hopeful the kākāpō population could push toward or beyond 300 — a threshold that would represent extraordinary progress for a species once considered functionally doomed.
**What Makes the Kākāpō Special**
Beyond the numbers, the kākāpō is simply one of the most extraordinary animals alive. They can live to 90 years. They are the heaviest parrot on Earth — males can weigh up to 4 kg. They have a distinctive, musty-sweet smell. They are profoundly curious and interactive with humans. They cannot fly. And they boom: males inflate large thoracic air sacs and produce a resonant low-frequency "boom" that can carry five kilometres through forest to attract mates.
The species has no fear of predators — a fatal evolutionary blind spot, since it evolved in a New Zealand that had no land mammals at all. Against stoats and rats, that docility became near-extinction. Against the island sanctuaries and round-the-clock human care, it is becoming survival.
The Guardian ran a live-stream of a kākāpō nest camera in March 2026, drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers in its first 48 hours. The sight of a fat, round, moss-coloured parrot peering into a camera with obvious curiosity has a way of making people care about conservation.
**The Long Game**
DOC's goal is a self-sustaining population that can weather disease, climate shifts, and the inevitable variability of rimu fruiting cycles. There are plans to establish additional sanctuary islands, and research into potential mainland recovery zones where predator control is intense enough to support kākāpō.
For now, the 2026 season is a gift — a mega-mast that landed at the right time, in the right places, for a species that has spent decades clinging to existence by the slimmest possible margin.
Fifty-nine chicks. More on the way. A species that once numbered 51 animals, still here, still growing.
*Sources: NZ Department of Conservation Kākāpō Recovery Programme · Mongabay March 2026 · The Guardian March 11, 2026 · Semafor March 5, 2026 · University of Auckland December 2025*
