A recent genomic study has confirmed that the endangered hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin) consists of three genetically distinct subspecies rather than a single population. Yellow-eyed penguins have long been thought to be a single species spread across a vast range from the New Zealand mainland down to the subantarctic islands. Recently, however, researchers sequenced whole genomes from 249 individuals across mainland New Zealand, Enderby Island, and Campbell Island and discovered this is not the ca

Basil the kākāpō is a survivor. When kākāpō were rediscovered on Stewart Island in 1977, in the Tin Range on the southern end of the island, the population was initially estimated to be between 100 and 200 birds. Most of these birds were found between the Pegasus River and an area known as Skyline, roughly halfway from the Robertson River to Seal Creek, largely in subalpine scrublands. They were divided into two arenas where male kākāpō boomed for females. However, several kilometres to the sout

Kakapo, the world’s only flightless parrot species, live on three tiny, remote islands off New Zealand’s southern coast and chances to see them in the wild are scarce. This breeding season has launched one of the birds to internet fame through a livestreamed video of her underground nest, where her chick was born on Tuesday. | AP