Holocene extinction may have put some pressure on other birds but at the time of early European contact (18th Century) and colonisation (19th Century) the bird life was prolific. With them, the Europeans brought ship rats, possums, cats and mustelids which decimated native bird life, some of which had adapted flightlessness and ground nesting habits and others had no defensive behavior as a result of having no extant endemic mammalian predators. The kakapo, the world's biggest parrot, which is flightless, now only exists in managed breeding sanctuaries. New Zealand's national emblem, the kiwi, is on the endangered bird list. There has been
Kakapo released in New Zealand to reduce rabbit numbers, but they also preyed heavily on many native species including the kakapo. Other browsing animals, such as introduced deer, competed with the kakapo for food, and caused the extinction of some of its preferred plant species. The kakapo was reportedly still present near the head of the Whanganui River as late as 1894, with one of the last records of a kakapo in the North Island being a single bird caught in the Kaimanawa Ranges by Te Kepa Puawheawhe in 1895. In 1891, the New Zealand government set aside Resolution Island in