Kakapo "The Unnatural History of the Kakapo" won two major awards at the Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival. Two of the most significant documentaries, both made by NHNZ, are "Kakapo – Night Parrot" (1982) and "To Save the Kakapo" (1997). The BBC's Natural History Unit also featured the kakapo, including a sequence with Sir David Attenborough in "The Life of Birds". It was also one of the endangered animals Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine set out to find for the radio series and book "Last Chance to See". An updated version of the series has been produced for BBC TV, in
Kakapo pre-Polynesian times, the kakapo was New Zealand's third most common bird and it was widespread on all three main islands. However, the kakapo population in New Zealand has declined massively since human settlement of the country. Since 1891, conservation efforts have been made to prevent extinction. The most successful scheme has been the Kakapo Recovery Programme; this was implemented in 1995 and continues. The first factor in the decline of the kakapo was the arrival of humans. Māori folklore suggests that the kakapo was found throughout the country when the Polynesians first arrived in Aotearoa 700 years ago. Subfossil and