Source: Radio New Zealand
DOC Kākāpō Recovery Programme announced that this year was officially biggest kākāpō breeding season on record. JAKE OSBORNE
Days of tunnelling, an uncertain outcome, a welcome find – it has been high drama on Te Kākahu / Chalky Island as the 2026 kākāpō breeding season comes to a close.
At the end of March the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) Kākāpō Recovery Programme announced that this year was officially the biggest kākāpō breeding season on record.
The final tally of chicks hatched was said to be ‘at least’ 105, which was a somewhat imprecise number for a species that is as intensively managed and closely monitored as kākāpō.
The nest’s front entrance boasted a spectacular clifftop view. Department of Conservation
This was because on remote Te Kākahu / Chalky Island, in Fiordland, a kākāpō mum called Rimu had chosen to nest in a precarious spot. Activity data beaming from her hi-tech transmitter showed she was nesting, but kākāpō rangers were unable to confirm how many eggs she had laid or whether any chicks had hatched.
“She’s built this clifftop fortress that we haven’t been able to access yet”, said Kākāpō Recovery Programme operations manager Deirdre Vercoe in April, on the Kākāpō Files podcast. “It seems very unlikely that her chicks will survive their first foray into the world, but fingers crossed”.
The small entrance to Rimu’s underground nest was on the edge of a 60-metre drop, with a narrow ledge the only way of getting in and out. It was not safe for DOC rangers keen to see whether Rimu had successfully laid fertile eggs, nor would it be safe for bumbling kākāpō chicks when the time came for them to leave the nest.
Petrus Hedman reaching into Rimu’s nest from new back entrance Department of Conservation
For several months the contents of the nest remained a mystery, and egg and chick tallies for the 2026 kākāpō breeding season had an element of uncertainty.
But last week, a significant tunnelling effort by Kākāpō Recovery staff Petrus Hedman and Daryl Eason revealed a happy surprise.
When Hedman’s digging eventually broke through the back wall of the nest, he stuck a hand into the cavity, “fumbled around a little bit and struck something soft”. Further digging revealed a large, healthy kākāpō chick. Mystery solved. The tally of chicks hatched is now a definite 106.
The rangers made the new hole large enough for chick and mum to use, and blocked off the unsafe clifftop entrance.
Rimu and her chick seen for the first time after the digging team break through. Department of Conservation
“We went back the following night and it looked like the chick had already been using the back way into the nest. There was some poo outside and yeah, all seem to be going well there,” Hedman told the Kākāpō Files podcast this week.
After a number of chick deaths from various causes, the tally for this breeding season had dropped to 92 confirmed chicks still alive at the end of last week. This record-breaking number now gets boosted back up to 93 with the addition of Rimu’s mystery chick.
Spot the kākāpō! Kākāpō are perfectly camouflaged with the forest floor. JAKE OSBORNE
Operations manager Deirdre Vercoe remains cautiously excited about this potential boost for kākāpō numbers “I’ve been in seasons before where we’ve got to this point and it’s feeling fantastic, and then we’ve had a disease outbreak or a few deaths in a row, so I carry a bit of tension about what could happen still. But if I can put that aside for a moment and think about it, we’ve had such a fantastic season so far… When I started with the programme [as a ranger, in 2002] we had 84 birds, full stop.”
The total adult population of kākāpō today is 235 birds. The new chicks won’t get counted in the population until they have passed 150 days old and are fully fledged juveniles.
And now, with Hedman and Eason’s help, Rimu’s chick will hopefully make it there too.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand