With Only 147 of World’s Fattest Parrots Left, This Year’s Baby Boom Has Left Researchers Positively Squawking

Though they used to be one of the most common birds of New Zealand， there are only 147 adult kākāpō alive today.

The species was previously thought to be extinct until a small population was found on an island south of the countrys mainland in the 1970s. Kākāpō only breed every two to four years. Over the course of the following decades， their population incrementally increased from 18 birds in 1977 to 50 in the mid-1990s. This year， however， scientists were delighted by the arrival of 76 new chicks.

○世界上僅剩147只的最胖的鹦鹉，今年的婴儿潮让研究人员喜出望外

鸮鹦鹉虽然曾经是新西兰最常见的鸟类之一，但现在只有147只成年体存活。

该物种曾一度被认为已经灭绝，直到上世纪70年代在该国大陆南部的一个岛屿上才发现了一小部分种群。鸮鹦鹉每两到四年才繁殖一次。

在接下来的几十年里，它们的种群从1977年的18只增加到了上世纪90年代中期的50只。而今年，科学家们对76只雏鸟的到来感到高兴。