2020-03-28_The_Week_Junior_UserUpload.Net

Kakapo cannot fly,and mainlycome

out at night.Their breedingseason

happens every two tofour years,

whichiswhentheirfavourit etree,

the rimu,produces fruit.Afew

hundredyears ago,the parrots were

widespreadbut their numbersfell

when humansbroughtcats and rats

to theislandsoffNew Zealandwhere

theylive.Kakapos nest on the

ground, so they were easy preyfor

thesenew predators.

The world’s quirkiest bird?

Transporting food to shopscontributes to climate

change but growing your own suppliescanmakea

difference. Herbs areagood placetostart, as they are

easy tocarefor and don’t takeupmuch space. All you

need isastem withafew leaves on top

cut from anexisting plant, and a

glass ofwater.The stem should

be between five and 10

centimetres long, andcanbe

cut from the top ofaplant like

the ones bought fromasupermarket.Trim off the

lower leaves and put the stalk inaglass ofwater,

keeping the leaves above the surface. Placethe glass

in awindow,change thewater every other day and

wait untilroots emerge.Someherbs will

wroots withinaweek; others

will takeabit longer.Onceyou

cansee theroots clearly,

plant your herbs in some soil

and they will flourish.

Windows aregreat

GROWYOUR OWNHERBS spots to grow herbs.

ECOTIP

WEEK

OF

THE

Animals and the environment

TheWeekJunior•28March

Vetheroes help saveworld’s

rarest human hospital

10

V

ets in NewZealandhavema

tocontainadiseasethatthr

to wipeoutararebirdspeciesca

thekakapo.

Thekakapo is theworld’s

largest parrot and lives on island

off thecoastofNewZealand.

Last year,ithadarecord-

breaking breedingseason,

when its numbersleaptfrom

around 147 to 213.Then, just

when it looked likeitwas allgoi

well, the birds werehitbyadise

that threatened toreversethe eff

savethem.The diseasewascalle

byatype of fungusthat infects

ungs. Several chicksandafew

died from it, and therewere

cerns that itcould spread to the

est of the population.

The main problemwas

identifyingthe disease in the

birds and thentreating them.

So NewZealand’sDepartment

ofConservation (DOC)and vets

from AucklandZoomappedout

enests that theythoughtwere

tatrisk, and helicoptered the

sindangertoAuckland,acity in

have CT scans (a scan likean

X-raythat showsdetailed pictures of the inside of the

body). However,the vets’ CT scannerwasbroken, so

thekakapoweretaken toahuman hospital instead.

The next stepwastogive the oversized parrots

the right drugstostop the infection.Togetthedrugs

intoeachbird’slungs, vets had to useanebuliser (a

machine that turnsaliquidintoafine spraythatcan

beinhaled), but the nebulisersinthehospital were

too big for thekakapo.Thevets then triedachild’s

nebuliser–and luckily,itworked. In all, nearly a

quarter of thekakapo population (51)wastreated in

the hospital.Outof 21 infected birds, 12 survived.

The surviving birds needed months torecover,and

have nowreturned home. Thankstothe team’shard

work, thepopulation ofkakapo is now 211.

BIGBIRD

Themale

kakapo

can

growto

64 centimetres

andwe

ighas much as

four kilograms.

Akakapo is treated

in NewZealand.

The world’slargest

parrot species.

FOOD

FOR

THOUGHT

Theanc

ientRo

mans

believe

dthat chewing mint

leaveswo

uld incr

ease

their intelligence.