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'20 years ago my good friend Douglas Adams spent a year tracking down

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'endangered animals together with the zoologist Mark Carwardine.

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'Now It's my turn.

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'Mark and I are heading off to find out
exactly what happened to those species

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'that he'd seen dangling on the edge of extinction two decades ago.

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'It promises to be exhausting...

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'Exhilarating...' Unbelievable.

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'And exasperating.

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'But I wouldn't miss it for the world.'

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This is one of the most geologically active places in the world, resulting in a landscape which is

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as extraordinary as the creatures that have evolved to live here.

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We could only be in one place...

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Peter Jackson's Middle Earth, otherwise known as New Zealand.

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It's a dizzying spectacle.

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Somewhat against my better judgement I've travelled half way round the world to see a parrot.

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On paper it seemed a heck of a long way to go, but now I'm here...

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Well, I have to say the scenery has struck me amidships. It's absolutely stunning.

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If this is New Zealand, what the hell was Old Zealand like?

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What do I need to know about this extraordinary place.

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This is going to be a nice, comfortable adventure I think, a bit different to the other trips.

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It's nice hotels, good wine, nothing to eat us. Broadband?

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No snakes, broadband, no malaria.

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That's good. I have to say, probably the most charismatic

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of all the animals we're going to be looking for, for the whole trip.

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This is the legendary kakapo. Yeah.

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The kakapo is a fat flightless parrot whose name is the Maori word for night parrot.

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Though the nocturnal kakapo once amiably waddled the length and

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breadth of New Zealand, by the time Mark and Douglas visited

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there were only 40 left, owing to its inability to fly

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and a habit, when attacked, of standing very still.

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This doesn't seem like parrot country, I have to say.

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You've given me a scenic view first. This surely can't be where they live?

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Well, that's the story, this is where they used to live, Fiordland.

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There were tens of thousands of kakapo,

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this whole valley would have been heaving with kakapos 100 years ago,

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now there are none left on the mainland at all. Oh!

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While I had not anticipated finding the valley heaving with kakapo, I must admit that

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finding none whatsoever is not the start I was hoping for.

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The kakapo are now confined to two tiny islands in the south.

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But before we meet them, we need to get to grips with what makes them and New Zealand so extraordinary.

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So we're heading north.

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We leave a dramatic but essentially kakapo-free landscape

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for somewhere less dramatic but slightly easier to get around.

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And that suits me just fine.

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I must say it's an absolute pleasure to be on proper tarmac roads.

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What a contrast!

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New Zealand is the world capital of flightless birds.

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And where better to start our own mini tour than with

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a flightless bird that is still present on the mainland - the kiwi.

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Though what you can see on the roads...

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Look there's an outline of a kiwi.

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Oh, yes.

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Sort of like a chalk scene of crime outline - this is where the kiwi was murdered.

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In New Zealand, the kiwi is a national treasure, protected and monitored 24 hours a day.

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Dogs have been banned from these woods for years, but there is one individual who is permitted.

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Percy, the kiwi hound.

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We've come to meet Percy and his assistant, kiwi tracker James Fraser.

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James is conducting a survey of the kiwis in this wood to keep tabs on the threatened population.

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You can see the way... You can see he's got his nose on the ground there. Yep.

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So there's been a bird that's been using this area,

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so he's just going to join the dots of scent to lead us to where the bird is now.

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He loves it, doesn't he, his tail wagging away.

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Way to go, mate, Percy, wait.

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Has he stopped?

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Oh, yes, I can see why you give him a day-glow coat - they disappear.

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Yes, he's not camouflaged, and nor are you, actually. No, orange is my favourite colour. Is it?

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Steady there, mate! So we've got a bird there now.

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He's got one? How do you know, cos he's just stopped? See, he's not coming back. And that's the sign.

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And that's usually the sign. Gosh, that's fantastic.

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You play rugby?

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You play rugby, don't you?

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Not for years. Not for years.

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If you go around there aim for anything south of the waist, if it does run...

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What do you mean, grab it if it comes running out? Absolutely.

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No-one's ever said that to me before. That's a kind of scrum-half job, is it? No, actually the blind...

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The blind side flanker. Good luck.

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I'll stand off, as I believe the rugby phrase is.

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There's no way I'll ever catch it if it comes running through here.

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It's got itself a whole condominium in here. Really?

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Come around, and have a look at it.

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In there.

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You put your head right in, a hard right.

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Is it more than one?

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Here.

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Oh, I can see it. Yeah.

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It's in the most impossible position.

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Is it giving you a beady look?

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I can't tell what sort of look it's giving.

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'Not the most memorable wildlife encounter from where I'm standing.'

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I can see the feathers. And the feet? Should be four of them.

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Four feet? Hopefully.

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Yeah, they have two legs each, you can look it up on kiwipedia.

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It's right round the corner here, probably underneath this spot here.

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All I can see was a big ball of feathers. How do you know there's two

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in here, we can see this one, but how do you know? I can see two.

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Where's the other one? Right next to it. Oh, blimey, you're more used to it than I am!

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'Ladies and gentlemen Mark Carwardine, the eminent zoologist.

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'Well, if our first kiwi won't come out and meet us, then we'll have to

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'send Percy the kiwi hound to find a more sociable bird.'

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It's looking promising.

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Have you found one, James? Yes, I've got one down the hole here.

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Have you actually seen it yet? Yeah.

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You've seen it?

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Just try to grip it's blunter end. You've got it? I've got it. Aw, fantastic!

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Oh, goodness, little furry thing.

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That is fantastic.

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And Percy doesn't even know, he's got his head stuck in the other hole.

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That's the way to hold them?

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They've got very powerful legs, haven't they?

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Really powerful feet and really sharp claws on the end of them, the front end is a bit blunter.

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Nice soft feathers, almost like fur.

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The wings were originally this part, just residual wings here.

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Just the wing here.

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Nothing there. Not much good for anything.

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And they really are honorary mammals, they really take the roll of...

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in the UK it would be badgers or hedgehogs.

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They've got feathers like fur and they feed on invertebrates

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in the forest undergrowth and out in the paddocks and so on.

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They are more like mammals than birds in many ways.

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They've got a body temperature which it closer to mammals than birds,

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the legs aren't honeycombed,

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so they're solid filled with marrow, so they're heavy.

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Heavy, yeah. And when you feel the bird when you're

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holding it... Can I try holding it to see how heavy it is?

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Yeah do. So hold its feet.

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Quite tight, or...?

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Other way round.

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Yeah, the head under the arm.

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It's quite heavy, heavier than a chickenIt's heavier than it would seem, isn't it?

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Doesn't seem to be panicking too much. Nah, it's part of their defence.

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It's kind of let's pretend, let's pretend we're dead, no-one will know the difference.

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Hello.

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So this one I notice is already ringed, this has obviously been caught before.

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The banded population gives us really good information about survival of birds, distribution.

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Cos this is another threatened species, isn't it? Oh, very much.

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Another bird of New Zealand that's in trouble.

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'Kiwi may be the national bird of New Zealand,

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'but they're highly vulnerable to attack and are in decline.

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'Without rigorous predator control they're easy prey for stoats

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'and weasels, but it's domestic dogs that pose the greatest threat.'

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You can see how easy it would be for dogs,

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if there was a wild dog or even a pet dog wandering around here and find it like Percy did...

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He'd have no chance. Gorgeous animal.

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Now, the one ornithological fact that any child could tell you, is that birds fly.

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So finding an island where the birds don't seem to be all together,

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well, bothered, needs a little explanation.

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Let me show you what happened in New Zealand, OK.

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Right. Suppose that's Gondwanaland.

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Gondwanaland being Africa or being...?

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All the southern continents all stuck together before they started separating.

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What's now India and Australia and... Exactly, Madagascar and so on.

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And so if you imagine this bit of Gondwanaland is New Zealand, and it drifts away,

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and imagine if the toast is the wildlife, do you mind if I tear your toast up? Help yourself.

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Are you taking this seriously? No, I am, yeah.

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There's lots of different birds, of course.

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Right. Because it drifted away a long time ago before a lot of animals had evolved,

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and it's only things really that can get here by flight, no people and no predators - that's the key thing.

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What happened is over the millions of years all these birds have got used to

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the idea there's nothing out to get them, nothing going to eat them.

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So they were able to evolve happily without worrying about anything,

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without learning to run or fly away and, in fact, flying is very energy expensive.

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Right. Why fly if you don't have to?

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Yeah. And so birds like the kakapo and the kiwi and so on can't fly and they've been fine.

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And then what happened was, less than 1,000 years ago, quite recently, people arrived.

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Maoris' from Hawaii arrived. That's the Maoris. On a milk boat.

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And then the Europeans.

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Yes. And people arrived with a whole bunch of animals.

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And this is the key thing that's happened to the world known as New Zealand.

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So Captain Cook arrives on a boat.

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Yeah, exactly. And on the boat is the ship's cat.

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Plus rats, plus mice, probably ferrets.

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And they arrived and the animals were, well, frankly, toast.

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Couldn't have put it better myself.

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What actually happened was more than 50 animals had become extinct just in that 1,000 years,

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less than 1,000 years. We've lost all the Moas. They're the big, big birds, aren't they?

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Yes, bigger than ostriches, 3.5 metres tall some of them, amazing birds.

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Even taller than you. That's amazing. And a lot of obscure ones. Stephens Island wren.

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A few hundred years isn't enough time to evolve the ability to be scared and to run away.

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Just drunk the Indian ocean, really sorry.

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The Maldives will repeat on me.

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From the ancient origins of this magnificent corner of the world to the modern city of Wellington.

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While we're here, a brief detour will give Mark the chance to fulfil a lifetime's ambition.

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This is a tuatara, which is not a lizard, it's a reptile.

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This is something I've wanted to see for as long as I can remember. It's only found in New Zealand

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and it looks like a lizard but it's a completely different... Looks like a small iguana.

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A completely different order, evolved completely separately,

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they probably separated 200 million years ago, but they live life in the slow lane.

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How long can you hold your breath for?

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Let me time you, I'll see if you're anywhere close to tuatara.

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Ready?

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Two seconds.

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How long ago did you give up smoking?

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Two years ago?

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You're doing quite well, actually.

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20 seconds.

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You're going red.

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OK, I'll let you off because you're never going to do it.

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Tuatara can hold his breath for an hour. What?

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It'll breathe so slowly sometimes there's an hour between two breaths, so you'd never have done it.

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'You can why Mark has wanted to meet one of these ever since he was six.

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'Bless him.'

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Back on the trail of the kakapo, this is the Te Papa Museum.

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Not only have the kiwi and the kakapo been turned into symbols

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of a fine nation, they've also been turned into rather fine cloaks.

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We'll be shown them by Araputa Hakiwai.

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I've come many thousands of miles to see a kakapo,

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am I actually looking at some evidence? Is this kakapo feathers? It's not all, no.

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It's a kakapo feather cloak but it's also a kiwi feather cloak.

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The majority of the feathers are kiwi but you have bunches... Oh, the coloured ones.

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Yeah, gorgeous mottled green ones are kakapo, most of the others are kiwi.

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There's a great Maori saying, Stephen,

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for people who are never satisfied,

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"You have a kakapo cloak and you still complain of the cold."

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Oh, wonderful. Because they're so warm. That's right. Covered in these wonderful feathers.

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Oh, how terrific, they're almost like fur, aren't they? Yes, it's interesting.

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Flightless birds tend to have much softer feathers, so the kiwi and the kakapo feathers are really soft,

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whereas birds that fly have much stiffer feathers, which help them keep in the air.

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It's why these birds are so good for making cloaks.

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There's not too many cloaks like this.

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We do have a number of kiwi feathers cloaks but having kakapo in it,

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I mean, there's only a few to my knowledge.

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That's an indication, not only of its rarity, but the specialness associated with kakapo. My goodness.

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And would they have been collected or is it unfortunately true that the bird would have been killed?

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Well, this cloak here dates to the mid 1800s,

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so certainly in Maori history the kakapo would have been eaten.

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But Maori throughout the country now have an act of conservation practice

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to ensure that we continue to have them for the future.

228
00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:58,920
In Mark and Douglas' book there's a description of the kakapo which is very endearing and very charming,

229
00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:02,160
but it also mentions that it's rather a smelly bird, is that...?

230
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:04,600
It's probably unfair. This is...

231
00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:07,440
150 years old, but it is quite a...

232
00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:09,960
It's a very sweet smell.

233
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:15,400
Somebody once described it as smelling like an old clarinet case, can you smell that?

234
00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:18,520
I know just what you mean by the smell of an old clarinet case.

235
00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:23,480
It's one of the big problems for the kakapo because when all the introduced mammals arrived,

236
00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,760
having a distinctive smell meant they could find them easily

237
00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:31,560
and so they got rooted out by the stoats and the ferrets and the cats and dogs very quickly,

238
00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:34,160
because they could sniff them from a long way off.

239
00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:37,640
So it basically had no defences, did it, really?

240
00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:40,920
No. Well, it wasn't used to have predators, it just sat there.

241
00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:44,880
It's only sense of defence was to sit there and wait and see what happened.

242
00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:47,560
And of course what happened was it got eaten. Yes.

243
00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,080
STEPHEN SNEEZES

244
00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:53,400
I think you're allergic to kakapo - that's really disastrous.

245
00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:00,640
It's not just birds that have evolved strange characteristics here.

246
00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:07,040
Isolated from the rest of the world, Matiu-Somes Island in Wellington Harbour offers sanctuary

247
00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:10,520
for another creature that's only found in this part of the world...

248
00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:12,560
The weta.

249
00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:14,280
Here we go.

250
00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:17,000
These boxes here.

251
00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:21,680
This is what's called a weta motel, and here we are, we've got two weta.

252
00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:28,760
'The word weta loosely translates as "the God of ugly things," which is harsh if not entirely unfair.'

253
00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:31,480
It's funny, New Zealanders don't like weta,

254
00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:35,360
cos there's another kind called... Just close that...

255
00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:39,600
Called a tree weta which does bite and can be quite aggressive.

256
00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:43,000
But these guys are the Labradors of the weta world.

257
00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:48,040
This one is a giant weta, actually a Cook Strait giant weta is its full name,

258
00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:51,160
another endangered animal, it's only found on three islands.

259
00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:55,720
It disappeared from the mainland completely, became extinct a 100 years ago. Good God.

260
00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:57,600
So it's another cause for concern.

261
00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:00,040
Lots of efforts to try to protect it.

262
00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:04,360
This is a wonderfully harmless gentle giant.

263
00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:10,280
Now I heard somewhere, that when you have a very particular isolated

264
00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:13,880
environment and the fauna and flora can sometimes get very big

265
00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:18,560
because they don't need to be small, and this is obviously a good example, isn't it?

266
00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:21,880
These can grow even bigger than this, three times the size of a mouse

267
00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:24,200
in one case, so you can imagine how big that was.

268
00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:27,240
You're absolutely right, it's a trait of island wildlife.

269
00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:30,640
A lot of island wildlife is bigger than the wildlife on the mainland,

270
00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:35,560
like the kakapo, that's one of the biggest, fattest parrots.

271
00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:44,160
Do you want to hold it? Argh... I don't know if want is the word.

272
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:47,600
Oh, he's right in your hair now. Oh, I say!

273
00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:52,080
Not bad, is it? Hello, darling. Do you know, she's actually quite sweet.

274
00:18:52,120 --> 00:18:57,240
One of the great advantages of them being on the island is that it's been rid of all those predators,

275
00:18:57,280 --> 00:18:59,440
even though it's so close to Wellington.

276
00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:03,280
And they can live here in relative peace, which is why they're doing so well.

277
00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:08,640
Hello. Are you all right with him going up there? She's pee'd all over me.

278
00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:10,600
Must like you, it's a sign.

279
00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:12,160
'Weta by name, wetter by nature!

280
00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:15,960
'Well, so far in this series I've met a lot people who,

281
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:19,000
'how can I put this, well, people who wear sandals.

282
00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:22,240
'You know the type. But animals need help from all of us.

283
00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:25,640
'Peter Jackson, of Lord of the Rings fame,

284
00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:31,320
'decided the weta's very oddness was reason enough to call his special effects company after it.

285
00:19:31,360 --> 00:19:34,240
'In return he donates money to help to conserve it.'

286
00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:37,520
I think every New Zealand child grows up terrified of wetas.

287
00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:44,720
The kids that aren't terrified are the future entomologists

288
00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:49,760
and bug experts, that's how they decide on their careers at a young age, I think,

289
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,880
they're the freaks aren't scared of wetas.

290
00:19:52,920 --> 00:20:00,720
Weta are currently working out how to make Lancasters fly again for Peter's Dambusters film.

291
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:05,720
Like most New Zealanders, Peter has hated the six-legged weta since childhood.

292
00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:09,000
If there was a weta anywhere close to me, I'd run screaming.

293
00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:12,600
But you made ones this big for King Kong, where they chased them.

294
00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:14,760
Yeah, well I wanted to... I mean,

295
00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:19,760
that's me trying to imagine the most terrifying bug that I could ever think of,

296
00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:23,720
cos you know, the movie just needed something very, very scary

297
00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:28,920
so I just put wetas the size of Alsatian dogs in there, it did the trick quite well.

298
00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:33,040
From one man's personal nightmare to another.

299
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:39,760
The thing about ground-breaking conservation work is that

300
00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:42,960
people rarely choose to do it just a short stroll from a nice hotel.

301
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:47,640
I'm no fan of boats at the best of times, but here, provisions for

302
00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:51,040
the next stage of our journey appear a little basic.

303
00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:56,120
It's also, well, not rough, exactly, but it's a bit bobby.

304
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:58,120
See if I get seasick or not.

305
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:05,120
While I have no doubt that the crew are professional and have almost certainly done this before,

306
00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:08,000
I'm nevertheless apprehensive about the journey ahead.

307
00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:14,520
Oh, dear. Not very good at this kind of thing...

308
00:21:16,360 --> 00:21:20,440
Whoa... one more.

309
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:24,280
Oh, dear God. OK.

310
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,360
Very fancy. Suits you. Thank you.

311
00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:47,240
She floats.

312
00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:50,480
That's a good sign, she floats.

313
00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:56,640
'While Mark enjoys the wind in his hair, I opt for the comforts of the ship's saloon.'

314
00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:00,040
Can you head for a flat bit?

315
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:04,760
'No, we're not off to the kakapo just yet.

316
00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:10,280
'Mark wants me to see why, in the world of conservation, you should never give up.

317
00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:17,040
'We're off to the island home of a bird that almost fluttered its last in the 1970s -

318
00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:21,760
'the black robin. The man who saved them is going to show us where it all happened.

319
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:30,960
'These are the Chatham Islands and this is Rangatira, 650 miles east of New Zealand.

320
00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:39,040
'It was Don Merton who helped create the idea

321
00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:41,280
'of clearing this island from predators

322
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:44,560
'to make it a last chance haven for the beleaguered bird.

323
00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:51,000
'In the process, he established a template that is now globally recognised as a success.'

324
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:53,280
HE IMITATES BIRD CALL

325
00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:03,800
I'm assuming that's good, but I've never heard a black robin before. For all I know, it's hopeless.

326
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:10,880
Anyone see a robin? This is the kind of place you should look, is it?

327
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:16,560
Yes, this is what they like, bigger trees, open underneath, closed canopy

328
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:18,840
and lots of leaves on the ground,

329
00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:21,080
lots of grubs.

330
00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:22,240
BIRD CALLS

331
00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:24,280
That's the tomtit.

332
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:27,840
Thanks to them, the robins exist.

333
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:33,600
Is that right? Yeah, Chatham Island tomtits were the perfect foster parents for the robins.

334
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:39,360
So you used them to sit on the eggs of the robin? Yeah, and they raised a whole generation of black robins.

335
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:44,760
But wasn't there a risk that the black robins would grow up thinking they were tomtits?

336
00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:48,680
Some of the tomtit-raised robins did have an identity problem.

337
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:53,200
They thought they were tomtits, and some of them just didn't know what they were.

338
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:59,920
'The tomtits did their bit, but it was fewer than a handful of black robins that saved their species.'

339
00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:04,000
So remind me, how few robins where there when this rescue effort started?

340
00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:08,320
In 1979 and 1980, there were just five left in the whole world,

341
00:24:08,360 --> 00:24:12,400
including just two females, and only one of those was a breeder. God.

342
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:19,360
And that's the famous female Old Blue, cos you put a blue band on her leg. On her leg, yes.

343
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:21,360
And she became a celebrity.

344
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:25,400
Came down as Old Blue and she saved her species.

345
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,720
Mother of the species, together with you, of course.

346
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:32,600
With her mate, I was going to say, Old Yellow.

347
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:37,840
'And suddenly, there it is, the black robin'. It's coming in.

348
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:47,560
Yes, I've got it.

349
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:53,800
Oh, my God, it's so quick.

350
00:24:53,840 --> 00:25:00,840
What I love is that they are so robiny, they have that quick, alert, bright-eyed

351
00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:05,840
little manner, just like a robin in Europe, a redbreast, just the same. They behave the same way.

352
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:11,080
Yes, it's no wonder they called them robins, even though they're no relation.

353
00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:13,520
Oh, they're not a relation? No.

354
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,560
Different genus. That's right.

355
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:22,520
Oh, my! It's fantastic!Look at that!

356
00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:24,760
I think Mark wants to get a picture.

357
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,160
Do you think I can just creep in here?

358
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:28,680
Sure, yeah.

359
00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:36,120
'By keeping the island free from predators and intensively managing the breeding population,

360
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:42,000
'from a single breeding female there are now about 200 black robins on this little island.'

361
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:48,600
They move so fast, don't they? They're difficult, aren't they?

362
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:54,240
It could be just three feet away from me, flitting about, and doesn't stay still for a second.

363
00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:02,120
'This bird has only been saved because Don and his colleagues

364
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,600
'listened to what the black robins were telling us'.

365
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:11,200
The message we got from the robins was, they're in trouble, it's because of humans

366
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:15,200
and, er, if they're going to survive, we've got to do something,

367
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,360
intervene in a major way, and that's what we did with the black robins.

368
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:23,840
'The idea of an island sanctuary is a pioneering model that has encouraged

369
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:29,640
'hands-on efforts around the world, and it's the template for this country's approach to the kakapo.

370
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:37,080
'This is the place we started, the mountains of Fiordland.

371
00:26:37,120 --> 00:26:39,480
'We know there are no kakapo here.

372
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:46,400
'But Don has something else that he's dying to show us.

373
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:54,520
'20 years ago, Don brought Mark and Douglas Adams to a small orange shed on this hillside.

374
00:26:56,480 --> 00:27:02,560
'This was once Don's base for studying the kakapo in the days when they ruled this valley.'

375
00:27:02,600 --> 00:27:05,760
I can't believe I'm back. I remember coming here so well.

376
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:11,440
Kakapo Castle, as you call it, is just over here, isn't it, and this was the exact spot we came to.

377
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:13,800
That's right.

378
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,600
'The visit by Mark and Douglas had a lasting impact.'

379
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:20,640
The interesting thing about that, um,

380
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:26,480
trip of yours was that it was the catalyst that really raised the profile of kakapo in New Zealand...

381
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:30,960
Really? And stirred a lot of action. That's fantastic.

382
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:36,840
Even now, people are... We receive letters from all parts of the world, people saying,

383
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:41,480
"We've just read Last Chance To See, here's ¤50 to go towards the kakapo".

384
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:44,200
Mark, that's fantastic. That's made my whole week.

385
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,000
Douglas would have been over the moon. I'm so sorry he doesn't know that.

386
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:53,000
Like you, when he first came, he was a bit suspicious about coming all this way just for a parrot,

387
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:58,520
but he went away absolutely hooked, and I heard him talk about kakapos to so many people.

388
00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:02,000
He did lectures on kakapos, you know, he absolutely loved them.

389
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:07,320
'There have been no kakapo on mainland New Zealand since the 1980s.

390
00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:12,920
'But Don and his colleagues managed to replicate the black robin project and move the handful of remaining

391
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:17,200
'kakapo from the mainland to a couple of small islands.

392
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:21,640
'Special, pest-free reserves offering intensive care

393
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:24,760
'for one of the most threatened species on Earth.

394
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:27,680
'And Don is already looking to the future.

395
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:33,160
'He has a dream that someday the kakapo will be reintroduced to this majestic landscape.'

396
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:39,920
There is another mainland area that I'm very keen on, and that's Sinbad Gully, just over the ridge here.

397
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:41,680
Oh, back here in Fiordland?

398
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:45,480
One of the last strongholds of kakapo was Sinbad Gully.

399
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:47,120
Why is that so good?

400
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:52,880
It's a natural, um, mainland island, natural refuge, surrounded

401
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,720
on almost all sides by sheer cliffs, and the sea on the other side, you see.

402
00:28:56,760 --> 00:29:01,200
And so the probability of stoats reinvading is much less.

403
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:05,960
They're capable of coming over the top four or five thousand feet,

404
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,840
but the chances of that happening are very slim. It wouldn't happen very often.

405
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:14,320
Do you think that's realistic? Do you think that one day they will come back to the mainland?

406
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:17,200
I certainly hope they will. That's what we must aim for,

407
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:24,080
self-sufficiency, where we can leave them to their own devices, and if the funds are cut

408
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:29,760
or some other event happens where we're not able to provide that ongoing,

409
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:35,840
labour-intense, costly support, conservation dependency, in other words,

410
00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:39,400
we must get away from that so that they're able to survive without us.

411
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:45,200
We leave Don behind as we edge closer to our parrot.

412
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:52,720
Invercargill is New Zealand's most southerly town, and it's our jumping off point from the mainland.

413
00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:57,280
At last, I'm to be allowed to get to grips with the kakapo.

414
00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:02,480
But first, there's the small matter of the quarantine procedures.

415
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:09,280
Right, "Quarantine store clean area".

416
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:11,000
Wow.

417
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:17,080
It's a warehouse. It is, I suppose this is where we... Oh, hello.

418
00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:19,600
Um, yeah, just.

419
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:22,560
OK? Yeah.

420
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:24,760
Blimey.

421
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:28,000
Feels like we're about to go up on an Apollo rocket, doesn't it?

422
00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:33,560
Something like that, yeah. Just come back from the moon or something. It's so pristine. It's extraordinary.

423
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:38,800
'We're not, as it happens, preparing for a flight into space.

424
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:44,120
'Instead, we've been told to wash all our belongings in a vile disinfectant'.

425
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:47,760
Feels like we're registering at a prison. You're carrying your stuff...

426
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,560
You'll have to bend over and have a torch poked up us next.

427
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:56,320
'Everyone of my most personal items must now be inspected for stowaways.'

428
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:00,200
That's a perfect example.

429
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:03,440
Is that a seed? Yeah, it looks like a grass seed here.

430
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:08,120
Goodness me. Actually they look rather rancid and old. That's because they are cashmere.

431
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:12,320
Do you get many cashmere Paul Smith socks going to Codfish? They're the softest socks!

432
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:19,000
'Jo Ledington is Head Of Operations on Codfish.

433
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:23,920
'It is her responsibility to keep the island untainted by the outside world.'

434
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:29,000
Obviously you're taking seeds off us, but you can't stop a goose from flying over from Stewart Island

435
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:34,720
or from the mainland of New Zealand with all kinds of things in its faeces and its feathers, can you?

436
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,640
The main thing for us is controlling what we can control.

437
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:41,560
And we can control what you take there, so if we can minimise as much as we can.

438
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:46,040
And so that's why we get you to wash all your clothes in TriGene,

439
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:49,720
and it's horrible stuff, but we don't want to introduce diseases.

440
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:54,520
Velcro is the most prone to catching seeds, is it? Yeah.

441
00:31:55,720 --> 00:32:00,800
'Having shed every last speck before departing for the island,

442
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:04,920
'there is just one more tiny thing we're having to leave behind.'

443
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,000
Space on Codfish Island is very limited,

444
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:12,520
so much so that we're going to have to sacrifice one member of our crew.

445
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:17,480
Common sense would suggest that it should be the most expendable member of the crew, the director,

446
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:20,640
but television has always been contemptuous of common sense,

447
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:23,080
so unfortunately it's our sound recordist, Don.

448
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:25,440
I'm afraid we're going to have to sacrifice you.

449
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,400
You can't come to the island so I'm going to have to... Urgh...

450
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:58,240
Unfortunately, owing to the strong winds, we have to land on the beach

451
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:03,520
of a nearby island and transfer to a helicopter to get to the kakapo.

452
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:08,560
It's quite exciting. It's very windy, we were warned, which is why we can't fly direct to Codfish.

453
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:13,480
We're turning around, we're at Stewart Island, and we're going to try and land on this beach.

454
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:17,680
Looks like there's just enough for the width of the plane.

455
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:34,800
Having made it in one piece to Stewart Island, all we have to do now is make a short hop

456
00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:36,320
to Codfish Island -

457
00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:42,920
25 miles off the southern coast of New Zealand and the main sanctuary for the kakapo.

458
00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:14,440
This is it. This is what we've been travelling for all this time, it's fantastic.

459
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,520
Somewhere in this forest is kakapo.

460
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:23,440
I've been wanting to come back here for 20 years, it's just fantastic, never thought I would.

461
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:29,040
It's about as remote as you can get, this is the furthest south I've ever been. Is it?

462
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:32,920
To step onto Codfish Island is to step back in time.

463
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:37,960
This is 3,500 isolated acres of pristine wilderness.

464
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,280
Here on Codfish Island, the cats and rats and other animals

465
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:46,360
that are wiping out the ancient wildlife of mainland New Zealand have been eradicated.

466
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:50,120
And slowly the numbers of kakapo are rising.

467
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:55,320
From the 40 total when Mark and Douglas were here, they've crept up to 90.

468
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:56,960
But it's still precious few.

469
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,480
Right, well. What do you reckon?

470
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,800
So, er, what are you in for?

471
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:11,040
What did you do? I'm innocent.

472
00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:13,760
Yeah, you'll find most of the people here are innocent.

473
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:18,400
You like it, then. Yeah, it's all right, so long as you keep your head down and do your bird.

474
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:25,720
'20 years ago researchers on Codfish Island were about as isolated from the world as it is possible to be.

475
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:28,640
'Today things have changed.'

476
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:31,480
Look, wireless, wireless.

477
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:34,800
Ah, life! How many mobile phones have you got?

478
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:38,480
I've got the one in my pocket, actually it's over there.

479
00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:40,680
I've got a...

480
00:35:40,720 --> 00:35:43,200
spare one here, a key one.

481
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:49,560
And I think another iPhone, just in case.

482
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:54,400
Actually there's probably one or two in here as well.

483
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:57,160
Just in case. Well, you can never be too sure, can you?

484
00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:58,760
There's another one...

485
00:36:01,240 --> 00:36:04,640
Jo is just one of a team of rangers and volunteers

486
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:08,720
who spend months living together on this isolated island.

487
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:13,560
Their job is to monitor the kakapo and to do everything humanly possible

488
00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:19,320
to ensure that the birds have the best chance of surviving and increasing in numbers.

489
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,840
Kakapo have a unique mating call.

490
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:25,680
LOW BIRD CALL

491
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:32,080
It's called booming, and they do it from a small hollow they make called a bowl.

492
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:38,440
Luckily, one of the parrots here was hand raised so he has made his bowl right next to the hut.

493
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:42,080
He's called Sirocco and he sounds like my sort of bird.

494
00:36:43,720 --> 00:36:50,080
As any light will disturb the birds, we're using infrared night vision cameras.

495
00:36:52,240 --> 00:36:54,480
He's under there somewhere.

496
00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:00,760
With lots of other night birds.

497
00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:03,240
Yeah.

498
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:07,720
Which rather lends the credence to your theory that

499
00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,880
they chose a spectrum that was not taken, you know.

500
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:13,760
Otherwise it would get lost with all these other calls.

501
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:16,160
Yeah, yeah.

502
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:18,200
Oh, there he is.

503
00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:20,600
He's just walked across the bowl.

504
00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:23,240
He's in the bowl or on the edge of it.

505
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:25,160
Look at that,

506
00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:27,280
eyes like little torches.

507
00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:29,440
I can follow it now, oops.

508
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:31,680
He's almost looking up at us.

509
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:36,280
LOW KAKAPO CALL

510
00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:41,080
His wings open every time he does a boom.

511
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:42,600
Oh, that's amazing.

512
00:37:45,720 --> 00:37:48,000
Can you see his wings going up and down? Yeah.

513
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:50,880
Tail up in the air.

514
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:52,800
And he does this every night?

515
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:56,080
Every night for as long as six months.

516
00:37:56,120 --> 00:38:00,840
Good God. And does he expect anything in return from it? I mean,

517
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:03,120
they expect a female to come, don't they?

518
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:04,840
That's what they do it for, yeah.

519
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:10,760
There's a lot of research being done, nobody quite understands what happens, but you get a group of

520
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:16,920
male kakapo all doing their booming, all spread out over the hillside and some seem to be a lot more successful

521
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:23,520
than others, so others will stand idly by or a few individuals get to mate with a lot of the females.

522
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:27,240
And do the ones that are unsuccessful kind of repine and droop,

523
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:28,960
and, I mean, do they look sad?

524
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:31,280
I know that sounds a very human thing to...

525
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:35,800
All Kakapo look a bit sad. It looks like they've got the world on their shoulders,

526
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:39,960
don't you think? The way they walk a little bit hunched over and head down?

527
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:44,520
I just can't bear the idea of giving up six months of the year

528
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:50,840
to make this noise and every single day and then nobody comes, it's so sad.

529
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:56,080
(Exit camera right.)

530
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:03,840
'It's wonderful the way a species can work its way into your heart.

531
00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:08,640
'And that's not just because Sirocco is so incredibly, well, convenient.

532
00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:28,720
'I spoke too soon. Daylight brings the almost inevitable trek to look at a proper track and bowl.

533
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:32,320
'Why settle for a perfectly good example right by the camp,

534
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:37,440
'when you can slog through wet jungle to one that looks remarkably similar(?)'

535
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:39,560
This is it, Stephen. Good lord.

536
00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:41,680
This is what we've come all this way for.

537
00:39:41,720 --> 00:39:44,240
I think bowl is a rather kind word, don't you?

538
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:49,120
Well, this is it, this is a track and bowl system made by a male kakapo.

539
00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:53,280
So this is the bowl, they normally put it next to a rock or a tree trunk

540
00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:56,160
and this is an old tree root, so it projects the sound.

541
00:39:56,200 --> 00:40:01,720
And look at this view, it's right out over the valley there so it's calling out over the valley. Oh, yeah.

542
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:06,520
The idea is it attracts the females that then come up these different

543
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:12,680
tracks, and what's incredible as well, as well as spending all night booming they also garden.

544
00:40:12,720 --> 00:40:14,560
And so if you look down here,

545
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:16,920
that is a completely cleared path,

546
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:20,240
that's not a human path, it's done by the kakapo.

547
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,800
Oh, with its claws and its beak. Yeah, he breaks all the bits off.

548
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:27,200
What the researchers actually do, if we get a few bits of twig,

549
00:40:27,240 --> 00:40:32,240
just as a little test to see if it's being used by a kakapo,

550
00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:34,640
I'll put a few twigs in like this.

551
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:36,320
And they tend to put them a cross,

552
00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:38,840
and then come back the next day and, sure enough,

553
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:42,040
those will have been removed, it'll have done it's gardening,

554
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:44,680
cleared it all nice and ready for some more booming.

555
00:40:44,720 --> 00:40:48,040
On the surface it's about as preposterous a way of breeding

556
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:51,600
as you can find, but I suppose the kakapo would look at a human being

557
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,960
and our strange ritual of chocolates and roses and first dates

558
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,800
and think that we are the ones who were loony, and maybe they'd be right.

559
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:06,080
None of that's ever worked for me! No, you should try and make yourself a nice bowl, and have a boom!

560
00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:10,560
'The more I learn about these mad parrots, the more I like them.

561
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:16,400
'The word in the camp is that this is likely to be one of the best breeding seasons on record.

562
00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:21,800
'My question to Jo is that, given the fact that not a single egg has been laid yet,

563
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:23,360
'how can anyone know?'

564
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:27,480
I thought for a minute that was one of those, like a tsetse flytrap.

565
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:29,720
It does look like those, yeah. What is it?

566
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,760
You have a lot of contraptions around the office, Jo.

567
00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:37,360
We do, this one here is a seed fall tray. Seed fall tray, so you mean the seeds fall in here.

568
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:40,280
Yeah, so we collect everything from up above

569
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:44,480
and it just falls onto here, and we collect it in a stocking down here.

570
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:46,600
It's very hi-tech!Female stocking.

571
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:49,520
It's a very amusing order to put in, isn't it?

572
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:51,520
Seven black stockings, please.

573
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:55,040
So is it a particular kind of tree, this? This is a rimu tree. Rimu.

574
00:41:55,080 --> 00:42:00,040
The really important thing about the rimu fruit is that it's what triggers kakapo to breed,

575
00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:03,040
so without them on Codfish Island they wouldn't breed.

576
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:06,680
Do you mean they won't breed unless the tree is fruiting.

577
00:42:06,720 --> 00:42:09,760
Yeah, that's right. So, they smell it or they see it?

578
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:13,080
That's the key question, isn't it, you're still working on that.

579
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:19,480
Yeah, we don't know. We know we need 11% of the rimu trees

580
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:22,480
to fruit to trigger breeding.

581
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:24,960
11%. Yeah, it is the magic number.

582
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:27,760
Have you any idea how many will be this year?

583
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:29,960
We're looking at 39% this year.

584
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:31,640
39, that's fantastic.

585
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:33,880
So that's a lot more. It is, yeah.

586
00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:36,600
So that should, if your theory is correct...

587
00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:41,240
It should trigger every female to breed on the island. It could be a bumper year.

588
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:45,640
It will be, yeah, scientists are predicting between 20 and 40 chicks.

589
00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:48,000
That will be a record for recent years. It will be.

590
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:50,840
And that will take you over the magic 100 figure.

591
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:53,000
Hopefully, fingers crossed.

592
00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:55,840
And with all the signs suggesting a record year,

593
00:42:55,880 --> 00:43:01,720
we head back to spend an evening in camp with a group of humans who like to hang around with birds.

594
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:05,440
And one bird that likes to hang around with humans.

595
00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:19,640
Unlike the other kakapo, Sirocco was hand-reared, so he's imprinted on humans.

596
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:22,280
That means he's thinks he's one of us.

597
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:25,200
Oh, hello. Wow.

598
00:43:25,240 --> 00:43:26,760
He is heavy, isn't he?

599
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:30,360
He is very heavy. I'm wearing kakapo this season.

600
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:34,480
Yes, you are. Look at you.

601
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:39,040
'You might call this social networking.'

602
00:43:39,080 --> 00:43:42,120
He's got his own Facebook page, has he? He has friends.

603
00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:44,280
As a bird, he should be on Twitter!

604
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:51,040
Go on, give me a kakapo scar, I've always wanted one of those.

605
00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:52,840
It'd be such an honour.

606
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:58,040
Sirocco eventually waddles off, but he's left his mark.

607
00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:00,240
What I've got here is a sort of raised bump,

608
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:03,320
I don't know if you can see it, you need light in the right way.

609
00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:05,040
No. Can't you?

610
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:06,800
No. Are you serious?

611
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:08,880
There's nothing there. Look at this.

612
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:13,280
Well, no, there is something there but yours is a red one, mine's a white bump.

613
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:18,520
I've fulfilled a lifetime ambition here you, realise, this is going to be a nice Kakapo scar.

614
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:23,440
Not many people have got that. Yours isn't swollen up, mine's sort of... Do you think that will scar?

615
00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:25,280
Probably. I hope so.

616
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:38,040
At the moment, this place is OK. Well connected, roomy, almost comfortable.

617
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:42,560
But in a month this hut will be heaving as more volunteers arrive

618
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:46,680
to deal with the hoped for influx of kakapo chicks.

619
00:44:46,720 --> 00:44:51,840
And the funny thing is, those chicks will probably outlive their guardians.

620
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:58,080
Kakapo live to be well over 100, though how much over 100 we're still finding out.

621
00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:07,640
It's our first nice day on Codfish Island.

622
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:12,200
And, of course, Mark is determined to get his obligatory photograph of a kakapo.

623
00:45:12,240 --> 00:45:17,360
The lovelorn Sirocco is so keen to bond with humans he is the obvious candidate.

624
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:20,120
When we find him, that is.

625
00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:23,520
Is that him? 'But Jo has that under control.

626
00:45:23,560 --> 00:45:29,760
'Like all kakapo on Codfish Island, Sirocco has been fitted with a radio tracking device.

627
00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:31,560
'He's somewhere here.

628
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:35,200
'So all Jo has to do is tune in and follow the signal.'

629
00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:37,200
Can you see him?

630
00:45:37,240 --> 00:45:38,840
Not yet.

631
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:40,360
Can hear him.

632
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:47,520
Can you see him?

633
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:50,240
If you stand here. Is he up there?

634
00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:51,760
Where is he?

635
00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:55,400
Yes, I can see him,

636
00:45:55,440 --> 00:45:57,320
see his outline.

637
00:45:57,360 --> 00:45:58,840
I still can't see him.

638
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:01,680
Low in that tree there, just that...

639
00:46:01,720 --> 00:46:04,080
Oh, yes, well done.

640
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:07,680
I suppose no prehensile tail for climbing like a monkey.

641
00:46:07,720 --> 00:46:09,280
So they've got to use a beak.

642
00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:12,400
Oh, yes.

643
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:14,360
I love the sliding.

644
00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:20,680
What Douglas said about the kakapo was not only had it forgotten how to fly,

645
00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:23,840
but it had forgotten that it had forgotten how to fly,

646
00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:28,320
and very often it would sort of jump out of a tree as if expecting to fly.

647
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:33,400
But I think the current thinking is that the wings, although they are no good for flight,

648
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:35,320
do actually sort of break a fall.

649
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:40,960
Well, yes, a controlled free-fall is what they say, or, as Douglas says, "Flies like a brick".

650
00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:46,440
Are you going the long way 'round?

651
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:51,760
Hello, matey. Oh, look at you.

652
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:53,400
Aren't you the best?

653
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:55,880
That is just fantastic.

654
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:06,200
It ought to be impossible to describe a creature as looking old-fashioned.

655
00:47:06,240 --> 00:47:12,480
But that's exactly how Sirocco looks with his big side burns and his Victorian gentleman's face.

656
00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:18,600
It's nice seeing him wandering around in the forest undergrowth.

657
00:47:18,640 --> 00:47:20,760
You can see he's got very good camouflage.

658
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:22,480
He has, that colour is..

659
00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:26,880
So evolution hasn't entirely rendered him useless.

660
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:29,640
Hello, are you looking at the lens?

661
00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:37,640
'A typical male, Sirocco is clearly only interested in one thing.'

662
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:40,040
Oh...

663
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:42,080
Hello!Oh, look at that.

664
00:47:44,200 --> 00:47:45,920
Ow!

665
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:47,960
God, he's got sharp claws.

666
00:47:49,520 --> 00:47:51,040
He's getting a bit frisky.

667
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:53,520
Ow, ow.

668
00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:57,160
Do you think he's actually attempting a sort of mating?

669
00:47:57,200 --> 00:47:59,760
He is. He is.

670
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:01,360
Oh, Mark.

671
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:06,840
Ow, cor, he's sharp. Look, he's so happy.

672
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:11,000
Sorry, Mark, it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

673
00:48:12,720 --> 00:48:17,040
You are being shagged by a rare parrot.

674
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:19,160
He thinks you are

675
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:22,520
a female, he's really going for it.

676
00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:26,880
Wow, you've chosen him... Actually, you're in pain, aren't you? That's all right.

677
00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:29,240
Oh, his neck is covered.

678
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:32,120
Am I?

679
00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:34,920
He's fine, but he has really sharp claws.

680
00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:36,440
Not gentle.

681
00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:41,360
Yeah, you've got blood there and blood there and blood there.

682
00:48:41,400 --> 00:48:45,240
We should patch you up, to be honest, because it's not good.

683
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:47,280
But I want you to call the chick,

684
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:51,080
when you have the chick, I want you to call it Stephen for me.

685
00:48:52,640 --> 00:48:56,240
I'm not sure how to take that. A little egg will come out of your mouth.

686
00:48:56,280 --> 00:49:00,760
Ladies and gentlemen, you've seen a television first, you've seen Mark Carwardine,

687
00:49:00,800 --> 00:49:05,880
who's devoted his life to conserving animals, actually taking an active part

688
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:12,440
in the conservation and breeding of a whole new generation of a whole new species - homokakapens.

689
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:14,600
He's going to give birth,

690
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:16,640
to a little kakapo.

691
00:49:16,680 --> 00:49:19,440
We're very proud of you. Do you want to have a go?

692
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:21,120
I think I'll pass, actually.

693
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:32,600
We've received word that Lisa, one of the 90 kakapo, has set up the first nest of the season.

694
00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:36,160
And where there's a nest, there'll be an egg.

695
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:39,560
We've been told that we will not be allowed to get close to her,

696
00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:45,320
but we're going to meet up with the team who are planning to monitor the first nesting bird of the season.

697
00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:50,320
When we find the team high in the forest, there's already breaking news.

698
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:58,000
You look excited both of you. We are, we've just found the first nest of the 2009 breeding season.

699
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:01,040
And it's Lisa's, which is very exciting for us.

700
00:50:01,080 --> 00:50:05,120
What is it, just a little hole? It's just a big fallen down tree that's still growing

701
00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:07,320
and there's a big root network underneath,

702
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:10,760
so it's quite large, you can crawl under yourself if you wanted to.

703
00:50:10,800 --> 00:50:14,840
Really, so it's perfect for her. Yeah. She could have a whole family in there.

704
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:20,240
'Unexpectedly, Chris Birmingham, the man in charge of monitoring, says that he is prepared to allow

705
00:50:20,280 --> 00:50:26,200
'just one member of our team to get shots of the first nesting bird of the season.'

706
00:50:26,240 --> 00:50:30,440
So we've got to be really careful, cos the risk is that if we cause any disturbance

707
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:36,320
then she might abandon the nest, of course, risking not only treading on a kakapo, but treading on an egg.

708
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:40,040
I have known ability to tread on an egg. You mustn't move, so I'll go in.

709
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:41,960
So can you take a miniature camera?

710
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:46,440
Yes, I think that's what we're going to do, then one of us, and maybe that should be me,

711
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:49,160
will go in and try and film it from a bit of a distance.

712
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:54,200
But we've got to be so careful, the last thing we want to do is to cause any disturbance. I'll keep guard.

713
00:50:54,240 --> 00:50:56,520
OK, well done, good stuff, fabulous.

714
00:50:56,560 --> 00:50:59,720
'Chris is planning to set up monitoring equipment

715
00:50:59,760 --> 00:51:04,040
'so that Lisa the kakapo's every movement is recorded.'

716
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:06,240
OK, see you in a bit, Stephen.

717
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:08,400
Are you off? Yeah, wish us luck.

718
00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:27,440
'While Mark seeks the nesting bird, Jo sets up the monitoring station and I provide some moral support,

719
00:51:27,480 --> 00:51:29,840
'which is more tiring than you might suppose.'

720
00:51:31,560 --> 00:51:34,480
Makes me feel sleepy watching other people work.

721
00:51:34,520 --> 00:51:40,360
'Jo's setting this tent up so that the volunteers can stay up here and guard the nest.

722
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:44,040
'Thank goodness it's not for me, I have a deep aversion to tents,

723
00:51:44,080 --> 00:51:47,880
'camping and all this outdoor exercise type stuff.'

724
00:51:47,920 --> 00:51:53,320
You may wonder why I'm doing this series if I hate exercise that much.

725
00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:54,920
Damn good question.

726
00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:02,200
No, I'm doing it because I do love animals, and unfortunately animals live outdoors.

727
00:52:02,240 --> 00:52:08,160
They haven't yet evolved, as we have, to the extent that they live in a nice upstairs flat in a city.

728
00:52:08,200 --> 00:52:11,080
When they do I shall be all the happier, I can assure you.

729
00:52:15,600 --> 00:52:17,520
So, how did it go?

730
00:52:17,560 --> 00:52:21,920
Oh, my God. I'm sorry to say, because you weren't there, it was the highlight of the trip.

731
00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:23,880
Really? Un-bloody-believable!

732
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:30,000
The nest is in a sort of a hole underneath the roots of a tree,

733
00:52:30,040 --> 00:52:31,480
very far in. Right.

734
00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:36,160
And we were leaning and putting our head in the hole and I got the camera in

735
00:52:36,200 --> 00:52:40,400
and you could see her sitting on the egg, on the eggs, filling the frame.

736
00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:49,200
She's so deep in. There she is!

737
00:52:49,240 --> 00:52:52,240
Oh. Isn't that absolutely amazing?

738
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:56,280
And it's not bothered at all, absolutely just sitting still.

739
00:52:56,320 --> 00:53:00,600
Lisa is the first nesting bird of the season

740
00:53:00,640 --> 00:53:04,480
and Mark's got her on tape. What a coup!

741
00:53:04,520 --> 00:53:06,880
Oh, my goodness,

742
00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:08,840
she looks wonderful.

743
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:11,000
Oh, that's just amazing.

744
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:16,040
You couldn't see the eggs because she's all over them,

745
00:53:16,080 --> 00:53:19,520
but she's obviously, that's obviously what she's doing.

746
00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:24,920
So now, there's this beam right across here, so the reflector is this side.

747
00:53:24,960 --> 00:53:26,640
So like a photo electric cell.

748
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:30,120
Exactly, so when she moves sort of three inches from there

749
00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:33,560
to come out, she'll break the beam, and ring the bell here.

750
00:53:33,600 --> 00:53:39,480
It was actually really quite sad watching it, she's so trusting, and just little blinks like that.

751
00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:44,160
And there's three people, arms in, all around her, setting up equipment,

752
00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:46,720
and no sense of, "Oh, my God I should run"

753
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:48,560
or "this is bad" or something.

754
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:52,440
Or, "I've got protect my eggs." Imagine what a swan would do if you tried...

755
00:53:52,480 --> 00:53:56,440
Oh, you'd be ripped to shreds, and there was no sense of that at all.

756
00:53:56,480 --> 00:54:00,000
You see there's the... that's the camera

757
00:54:00,040 --> 00:54:04,080
set right in front of her sitting on the egg,

758
00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:08,960
the lead that we've just brought back up is attached to the camera and the monitor will be in the tent.

759
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:12,440
So you should be able to see her on the monitor as well.

760
00:54:15,240 --> 00:54:18,080
Look at that. Love the blink.

761
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:22,640
Somehow the blink makes it all the sweeter. That's so fantastic.

762
00:54:22,680 --> 00:54:26,840
I never thought in my wildest dreams that we'd see that.

763
00:54:28,400 --> 00:54:34,680
'So, with the monitoring equipment in place and a camp erected that will now be staffed 24 hours a day,

764
00:54:34,720 --> 00:54:38,840
'the world can rest safe in the knowledge that if at any time Lisa

765
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:42,960
'leaves her precious eggs it will not go unnoticed.'

766
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:48,000
So, Chris, what actually happens when she leaves the nest and it breaks the beam?

767
00:54:48,040 --> 00:54:52,800
Well, now she has a doorbell on the nest that will, not so much alert her to the arrival of people,

768
00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:54,320
but alert us to her departure.

769
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:58,000
And so every time she leaves the nest now it comes back with this noise.

770
00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:00,960
CHIMING

771
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:04,440
It'll probably haunt some volunteers for years to come, I imagine.

772
00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:07,480
That's what happens when she leaves and when she comes back,

773
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:10,480
so we know here at the tent that she's departed or arrived.

774
00:55:14,760 --> 00:55:20,080
The kakapo now leaving is the 11.15 from Codfish Island.

775
00:55:20,120 --> 00:55:25,320
Never, never, never has any animal had more lavished care and attention on it.

776
00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:29,720
It's rather wonderful, isn't it, that this solemn and innocent creature

777
00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:35,280
should have people spending nights after nights after nights camping out, looking after,

778
00:55:35,320 --> 00:55:40,440
wondering if she leaves the nest, just so that the chick can be born. I think it is magnificent.

779
00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:48,440
Three months after our trip to Codfish Island,

780
00:55:48,480 --> 00:55:53,040
all this effort paid off, as the kakapo population rose to 124,

781
00:55:53,080 --> 00:55:57,120
thanks to the most successful breeding year on record.

782
00:55:57,160 --> 00:56:00,240
Perhaps, in the end, this is not a story of birds,

783
00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:04,320
but a story of human passion and commitment to go to any lengths.

784
00:56:04,360 --> 00:56:09,360
And that includes travelling halfway round the world.

785
00:56:09,400 --> 00:56:12,720
What do you reckon? You were a little bit sceptical, weren't you,

786
00:56:12,760 --> 00:56:16,800
coming to the other side of the world to see a parrot. How do you feel about it now?

787
00:56:16,840 --> 00:56:22,680
On paper it looks odd, doesn't it, a flightless parrot for a whole hour's programme.

788
00:56:22,720 --> 00:56:23,960
Does it really justify?

789
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:29,760
But to me, in a sense it's almost the most perfect of all the species we've been looking at,

790
00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:33,440
because it is a sort of copy-book example of conservation

791
00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:37,920
and of the way we have to look at the diminishing resources around us,

792
00:56:37,960 --> 00:56:41,400
which I'm afraid we have mostly been responsible for.

793
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:44,880
I mean the way it's working now it all looks very promising,

794
00:56:44,920 --> 00:56:46,640
but it still quite a scary...

795
00:56:46,680 --> 00:56:53,200
It is. It's proof of that lamentable and melancholy fact that one was taught when one was young you know,

796
00:56:53,240 --> 00:56:59,080
you knew it took you five minutes to mess your bedroom up completely but it took you a whole day to tidy it.

797
00:56:59,120 --> 00:57:03,120
It takes one cat... That's a good analogy, actually.

798
00:57:03,160 --> 00:57:05,600
One cat to destroy everything,

799
00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:09,440
and yet it takes hundreds of humans and thousands,

800
00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:15,000
tens of thousands of human man hours to sustain even a small population like this.

801
00:57:19,600 --> 00:57:21,960
This is Sinbad Gully.

802
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:27,400
Somewhere among these trees are the dusty remains of long abandoned track and bowls.

803
00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:34,880
The last remnants of a time when a fat, flightless parrot ruled one of the most majestic valleys on Earth.

804
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:39,920
Don Merton has a dream that is shared by a new generation of conservationists.

805
00:57:39,960 --> 00:57:44,760
They hope that someday this valley will be home to the kakapo once again.

806
00:57:44,800 --> 00:57:49,120
And having seen their commitment, their belief, and their tenacity,

807
00:57:49,160 --> 00:57:54,120
I would not be entirely surprised to hear that Don's dream has someday come true

808
00:57:54,160 --> 00:57:59,360
for the fabulous, ludicrous and oh, so appealing kakapo.

809
00:57:59,400 --> 00:58:02,200
Long live the flightless parrot.

810
00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:17,240
They're big, they're blue and they blow off.

811
00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:20,600
It's not blowing off, it's blowing. Sorry, you're right.

812
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:24,520
For a land based creature such as myself, a hunt for blue whales

813
00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:28,800
was always going to involve stepping out of my comfort zone.

814
00:58:28,840 --> 00:58:31,080
Mark has saved the best till last.

815
00:58:38,160 --> 00:58:41,760
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