Page 75 - BBC Wildlife - August 2017 UK

CRACKING

THE

KAKAPO

CODE

To save one of the world’s rarest parrots,

every living kakapo is having its full genetic
code deciphered, reveals Helen Pilcher.

nchor Island is a tiny fleck off The species achieved infamy when one
New Zealand’s south-west corner. individual – a spirited male called Sirocco –
Muddy tracks crisscross steep tried to mate with BBC Wildlife’s columnist
slopes smothered in dense, spiky Mark Carwardine in the 2009 BBC Two
scrub. Framed against a backdrop documentary Last Chance to See, prompting co-
of the Fiordland mountains, host Stephen Fry to comment wryly, “when you
A Andrew Digby stands on a hilltop have the chick, I want you to call it Stephen.”
surveying the scene. “It feels like being on Today, just 154 of the Critically Endangered
the edge of the world,” he tells me later. But birds exist, scattered across a handful of
Digby’s not here to enjoy the view, he’s here remote, wild islands. As science advisor for the
to catch one of the world’s rarest and most Kakapo Recovery programme, it’s Digby’s job
enigmatic birds, the kakapo. to dream up strategies to ensure the species’
A large, chubby, green parrot, its dark survival. This summer will see the culmination
twinkly eyes are framed by saucers of soft, of his biggest vision yet, when scientists finish
yellow feathers – making it look like an decoding the full genetic code – or genome – of
avian Deirdre Barlow, circa 1988. These every single living kakapo. It could be a game Andrew Digby
are funny-looking birds; comical even. changer for kakapo conservation. But in order