Kakapo Codfish / Whenua Hou and Anchor, where they are closely monitored, and Little Barrier / Hauturu Island is being trialled as a third home for the species. The common English name "kakapo" comes from the Māori "kākāpō", from "kākā" ("parrot") + "pō" ("night"); the name is both singular and plural. "Kākāpō" is increasingly written in New Zealand English with the macrons that indicate long vowels. The kakapo was originally described by English ornithologist George Robert Gray in 1845 and named "Strigops habroptilus". Its generic name "Strigops" is derived from the Ancient Greek "strix", genitive "strigos" "owl", and "ops" "face", while
Flightless bird provided opportunities for Palaeognathes to distribute and occupy novel environments. New ecological influences selectively pressured different taxon to converge on flightless modes of existence by altering them morphologically and behaviorally. The successful acquisition and protection of a claimed territory selected for large size and cursoriality in Tertiary ancestors of ratites Temperate rainforests dried out throughout the Miocene and transformed into semiarid deserts causing habitats to be widely spread across the growingly disparate landmasses. Cursoriality was an economic means of traveling long distances to acquire food that was usually low lying vegetation, more easily accessed by walking Traces of these events