Kakapo Kakapo The kakapo (Māori: kākāpō) or "night parrot", also called owl parrot ("Strigops habroptilus"), is a species of large, flightless, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot of the super-family Strigopoidea, endemic to New Zealand. It has finely blotched yellow-green plumage, a distinct facial disc, a large grey beak, short legs, large feet, and relatively short wings and tail. A combination of traits make it unique among its kind; it is the world's only flightless parrot, the heaviest parrot, nocturnal, herbivorous, visibly sexually dimorphic in body size, has a low basal metabolic rate and no male parental care, and is the only parrot to
Kakapo Kākāpō 125 project aimed to sequence the genome of all living kakapo, as well as some museum specimens – the first time an entire species has had its genome sequenced. The project is a collaboration between Duke University and the New Zealand Genomics lab in Dunedin. Before the arrival of humans, the kakapo was distributed throughout both main islands of New Zealand. Although it may have inhabited Stewart Island before human arrival, it has so far not been found in the extensive fossil collections from there. Kakapo lived in a variety of habitats, including tussocklands, scrublands and coastal areas. It