I have a brand-new book out. This was probably my most emotional expedition yet for kids. It’s called Kakapo Rescue. Nick took the pictures, I wrote the words. We waited five years for the opportunity to write this book. It’s about this extremely rare parrot that only lives on tiny islands off the southern coast of New Zealand, and rarely nests.
But when it does, this bird has inspired the most elaborate and the most compelling effort ever in the history of the world to save a bird. When we went, there were fewer than 90 of these kakapos on the planet. They’re giant, flightless, nocturnal parrots. They can weigh up to 11 pounds. They look like a monster parakeet.
They’re very, very friendly, very intelligent. And Nick and I for five years had kept our springs free, because they might nest. And every spring we’d like wait for the call to see if they were nesting. And then finally, they did, and I got on the plane with less than two weeks’ notice, and just flew to New Zealand. And we went to this island.
And to be part of this effort. Every single one of these birds is so important, because there’s fewer than 90 there. Every bird has a backpack with radio telemetry so you can follow the bird everywhere it goes. The scientists know where every bird on the planet, every kakapo is at any given time. And every nest has a pair of nest nannies attending to the nest.
Volunteers, who have also waited for years for this opportunity, set up a tent right outside the underground nest of this giant nocturnal parrot, and in the nest, which is quite big, there’s a video monitor. So they can see what it’s doing every second. And they also have set up this little infrared beam so that when the mother parrot leaves the nest, it breaks that beam, and a doorbell sounds in the volunteers’ tent.
So the volunteers, when she leaves the nest, she’s going to get something to eat. The volunteers then put on all their warm clothes, ‘cause this is in the latitude known as the “roaring 40s.” It’s cold. It’s the middle of the night. They put on all their clothes. They stagger out to the nest.
And they take out the little baby and put a warm blanket on it. I mean, how cute is that? Every chick. It looks like a little wet piece of tissue. Baby parrots are very funny-looking critters. I mean, baby humans are kinda funny-looking too, but. They’re so ugly they’re cute. But here you are, holding — they’re only — when we got there, we got to hold the only kakapo chick on the planet.
And that was so thrilling. And that first baby chick died when we were there. And we all wept. The scientists, the volunteers. And it was horrible that this dear little thing lost its life, but it also was like the only chick on the planet. But then we were there when another one hatched, and watched it hatch from the egg. So you get to be part of that, and you get to share that with your readers. And you really show them that there is nothing on this earth more important than what these people are doing, trying to save this species from extinction. And it really is worth a very great deal of effort, and a very great deal of care.
And even if our readers never see a wild kakapo, which many of them are not going to do, knowing that our planet has this wondrous, 11-pound, flightless, funny, smart bird who can live to be 70, 80, 100 years old, that has memories of stuff that, you know, your grandmother isn’t gonna remember. That this bird continues to exist and adorn the earth, I hope that matters to these readers after you’ve taken them on that expedition.
And these parrots, and the volunteers, and the scientists, they were such great teachers. And to be able to bring back the immediacy and the emotion of that expedition was a really great privilege. So right now, that’s my favorite of all the kids’ books that Nick and I have ever done together.
