The kākāpō, the world’s largest, most endangered, and least graceful parrot, is undergoing a baby boom.
The New Zealand bird was almost wiped out by introduced predators such as rats and cats, thanks to its inadequate survival strategy of standing still when threatened; it also “flies like a brick,” per the Douglas Adams book Last Chance to See, with an unhelpful tendency to fall out of trees.
By 1995, just 51 known individuals remained, on isolated islands. But conservation efforts drove its population to 236 by the start of 2026, and a bumper crop of the berries it uses for courtship rituals have led to a further 240 eggs being laid this mating season, although only a fraction will hatch.