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 to remotely monitor the behaviour of females and chicks in nests. Data loggers record when mother kakapo come and go, allowing rangers to pick a time to check on the health of chicks, and also indicate how hard females are having to work to find food. Because mother kakapo often struggle to successfully rear multiple chicks, Kakapo Recovery rangers will move chicks between nests as needed. Eggs are often removed from nests for incubation to reduce the liklihood of accidents, such as lost eggs or crushing. If chicks become ill, aren’t putting on weight, or there are too many chicks