page_title: Andrew Digby
section_title: Kākāpō recovery project
hierarchical_section_title: Andrew Digby / Kākāpō recovery project
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Takahe in Zealandia in Wellington
context_page_description: Andrew Digby is an astronomer and ecologist whose work focusses on researching and conserving New Zealand's endangered endemic birds.
context_section_description: Kakapo Recovery is a project of the New Zealand Department of Conservation utilising the skills of scientists, rangers and volunteers to protect and boost the numbers of the endangered Kakapo, a flightless parrot. From only 18 individuals in the 1970s, the projects breeding and research program has boosted numbers to a population 157 adults living on a predator-free islands.  Since February 2016, surviving kākāpō are kept on three predator-free islands, Whenua Hou/Codfish, Anchor and Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier islands, where they are closely monitored. In 2016 a record 47 chicks hatched and 33 were fledged. Digby promoted the idea to crowd fund a project to  sequence the genome of every living adult kakapo as well as the genomes of 55 long-dead museum specimens from around the world. This will be the first time genomes will be sequenced for an entire species population and will allow the breeding program to be refined and improved.
caption: Takahe in Zealandia in Wellington.
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