Owl parrots are the heaviest parrots in the world, they can weigh more than 4.4 kg, because of their weight, plus their wings are too short, their wings can not carry their bulky bodies, so they can not fly, they can only climb trees. Owl parrots are found only on Chalk Island, a southern island in New Zealand, because they are nocturnal animals that resemble owls and resemble owls, and are called owl parrots. They mainly eat native New Zealand plants, seeds, fruits and pollen waiting, owl parrots live longer than the average bird, even longer than humans, they live around 100 years.
They are also the only parrot in the world that practices polygamy, and during the estrus period male parrot prepares courtship grounds on the ground, which are made up of branches and leaves. At night, male parrots will make low chirps, this sound can be transmitted to 5 kilometers away, every night will be chirping for more than 8 hours, this call will last for 3-4 months, so during this time the male parrot will lose nearly half of the weight, the male parrot will also secrete a unique aroma to attract female parrots, once there is a female parrot approaching, the male parrot will raise the low sound to decibels to attract female parrots. This courtship success rate is as low as their reproduction rate, and since male parrots are not responsible for feeding their offspring, female parrots are not particularly willing to breed and mate, and on average 3-4 years do they breed a litter.
The parrot is known as the lowest IQ parrot, often standing still because of fright, and even when running to a tree, it will often fall under the tree because it forgets that it cannot fly. Their only skill in protecting themselves is to disguise themselves by hiding in the woods with their green feathers.
Independent ecological environment
New Zealand has been drifting independently in the ocean for 80 million years, this year has formed a unique way of species evolution, because New Zealand is an independent and closed natural environment, resulting in a very slow pace of life evolution here, the pace of life of the entire New Zealand animal is also very slow, spotted wedge lizards are the most common neighbor of the owl parrot, this lizard has evolved the ability to breathe only once an hour, and they can not eat for several months. There are many species of creatures like the spotted wedge lizard in New Zealand, and their main characteristics are slow growth, low reproduction, long lifespan, and most importantly, there are no large carnivores in New Zealand.
Owl parrots can't escape this trait either, they are the world's most endangered species, unique to New Zealand, and now there are 142 adult and 72 young birds in existence. Their habitat has been destroyed since the 19th century, and with the invasion of alien species, their numbers have declined dramatically.
Invasion of alien species
In 1883, the European stoat followed the Europeans to New Zealand, and the European stoat was first introduced to New Zealand by New Zealand farmers to control the local rabbit population. The arrival of greedy and delicious stoats in New Zealand is like knocking on the door of paradise, and their arrival has caused native New Zealand birds to be unable to resist this new rogue from Europe, including the owl parrot, which is good at climbing trees, they eat bird eggs, eat young birds, and even adult birds, and the European stoat can easily single out prey that weighs more than 10 times its own, such as the owl parrot. In less than 150 years, the parrot was pushed to the brink of extinction.
In order to obtain more of the possum fur, this marsupial was brought into the low natural habitat of the owl parrot, followed by plague and killing, although the humans later organized people to hunt the possum, but there are still 70 million possums living in the islands of New Zealand, which is far more than the owl parrot. The success of mammals is built on the failure of birds.
The parrot's defenses are too poor
During their breeding, the male birds will chirp all night, and these calls are easy to attract mammalian predators, and for owl parrots that have no resistance at all, it is easy for predators to catch owl parrots. Because parrots like to stay in trees, it is easy to catch them in the wild, just need to shake the branches or bushes, they will fall from the top for a long time, like shaking the apple tree. Owl parrots have been in a closed ecological environment for a long time, they have no resistance to foreign viruses and bacteria, all of them are easily infected with Aspergillus, this mold is easy to cause the death of the parrot, this aspergillobe is difficult to be found through normal testing, only through CT can detect it, once found to be infected with Aspergillus, the parrot must be hospitalized.
The protection of humanity
In 1970, the presence of owl parrots was first discovered and protected, and their number rose from 51 at the beginning of their discovery to 214 today. In 2020, a conservation team of more than 100 people, composed of scientists, volunteers and rangers, began to help the parrot breed, and more than 70 young birds have been successfully hatched, which is expected to reverse the danger of the extinction of the owl parrot.