Kakapo than females. Twenty-eight males were found to average in one study, and 39 males were found to average in another. In the same studies, 28 females were found to average and 18 females were found to average , respectively. Kakapo are the heaviest living species of parrot and on average weigh about more than the largest flying parrot, the hyacinth macaw. The kakapo cannot fly, having relatively short wings for its size and lacking the keel on the sternum (breastbone), where the flight muscles of other birds attach. It uses its wings for balance and to break its fall when
Kakapo 1950s, the New Zealand Wildlife Service was established and began making regular expeditions to search for the kakapo, mostly in Fiordland and what is now the Kahurangi National Park in the northwest of the South Island. Seven Fiordland expeditions between 1951 and 1956 found only a few recent signs. Finally, in 1958 a kakapo was caught and released in the Milford Sound catchment area in Fiordland. Six more kakapo were captured in 1961; one was released and the other five were transferred to the aviaries of the Mount Bruce Bird Reserve near Masterton in the North Island. Within months, four