Professor Mick Clout spoke at our meeting on 11 July.  He is Professor of Conservation Ecology at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland. He is a long-standing member of the Kakapo Recovery Group and chaired it from 1995 to 2021. 

Mick Clout took us on a journey of the rescue from extinction of the kakapo. Thought to be extinct, a small population of kakapo were discovered in Fiordland in 1947. Studies of the Fiordland kakapo population in the 1990s found they had been ravaged by stoats which had killed all females and young. Only an aging group of around 50 males remained. Fortunately another population of kakapo including females was discovered on Rakiura (Stewart Is). Kakapo breed usually only once every 3-4 years, coinciding with a rimu mast season. A captive breeding programme was established. Alongside this, careful monitoring and supplementary feeding of the wild population enabled their numbers to grow to currently around 250. Establishment of kakapo populations on possum and stoat-free islands including Codfish and Little Barrier islands has further strengthened their survival chances.

Professor Clout has also carried out considerable research into invasive predators.  He is one of those spearheading efforts to make New Zealand predator free by 2040.