[00:00.00]It's a parrot,
[00:01.14]and weighing up to four kilos,
[00:03.48]it's the world's heaviest.
[00:05.85]And yes, you've guessed it,
[00:07.51]it can't fly.
[00:09.95]Meet the kakapo.
[00:12.16]Too heavy and short-winged to get airborne,
[00:14.76]it climbs trees instead.
[00:17.12]Kakapo were once one of the most successful
[00:19.45]and abundant herbivores in New Zealand,
[00:21.80]the Kiwi equivalent of our rabbit.
[00:23.76]In 1899, explorer Charlie Douglas wrote,
[00:27.04]''They could be caught in the moonlight by simply shaking the tree
[00:30.49]or bush until they tumbled to the ground,
[00:33.08]like shaking down apples.''
[00:34.79]Its favourite food is up above,
[00:37.04]the tiny seeds of the rimu tree.
[00:39.85]This fruit fuels kakapo reproduction
[00:42.93]and they only breed when the trees produce a bumper crop,
[00:46.16]so about once every four years.
[00:48.82]Kakapo breed slower than any other bird,
[00:51.97]but they also live longer,
[00:54.24]sometimes more than a hundred years.
[00:57.24]The male's "song'' is as peculiar as the bird itself.