A ‘booming’ Kākāpō 2025/26 season
2025-11-17
2026 is going to be a ‘booming’ (and possibly the largest) Kākāpō breeding season of fledglings.
Kākāpō only breed when the Rimu tree masts (produces mass fruit), and this only occurs every 2–4 years. This year, it’s expected that on the three offshore islands where there are Kākāpō, 50–60% of the Rimu, will be fruiting! Kākāpo generally start breeding when 10% of Rimu tips bear fruit and breeding increases as the percentage of fruiting Rimu increases.
What does this have to do with these photos? We are teaching the fantastic DOC team, who will be sexing the chicks when they are born, on how to use our fast in-field PCR test. Here the team have swabbed themselves and are learning how to extract the DNA & run the PCR before then applying these principles to Kākāpō chicks when breeding season kicks off.
Along with the many organisations that help with the breeding programme, we love the fact that we can use our skills in PCR, to be able to give back to conservation and help with this very special (and unusual) taonga.
