Back by popular demand, New Zealand’s rare endemic night parrot will be available for viewing by interested public in September-October in southern New Zealand.

Get your map, mark your calendar and dust off your intrepid adventuring cap. From September 8-October 22, 2008, you have a date on New Zealand’s Stewart Island with one of Earth’s most unusual and fabulous creatures.

Today, there are 86 known kakapo remaining on Earth (and this number has come up from a decade ago!). Once prevalent throughout New Zealand, kakapo now reside on the predator-free islands Codfish and Maud under the care of the Kakapo Recovery Programme. Typically only scientists involved in the programme have had the opportunity to behold this rare and mysterious bird. That changed with the inception of Kakapo Encounter. In the Spring of 2006, the Ulva Island Charitable Trust hosted Kakapo Encounter on Ulva Island (Ulva is a predator-free island in Stewart Island’s Paterson Inlet) and invited the public to come observe a kakapo. [LINK: Read on...]

A friend of mine spent a couple of months there to study them for collage. lucky guy.

Wow, I'ld love to see that! Too bad I'm not in New Zealand. I once did a research project on Kakapos. Very interesting.