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The first chick of the 2026 kākāpō breeding season has successfully hatched on Pukenui/Anchor Island. DOC’s Kākāpō Recovery Programme reports that Tiwhiri-A1-2026 hatched in foster mother Yasmine’s nest on 14 February 2026 and is the first kākāpō chick in four years. Huhū-A1-2026 is due to hatch on Whenua Hou imminently. Sixty-two kākāpō nests have been found so far and the egg tally is nearly 200, of which 78 are known to be fertile. More eggs are expected. Alison Ballance visits Whenua Hou, meets some of the kākāpō rangers and reports on the technology that enables the Kākāpō Team to conduct 24-hour surveillance on each bird.

Send any Kākāpō Files questions and comments to kakapo@rnz.co.nz.

In this episode:

00:00 – Introduction
00:50 - First chick hatches
04:28 – Nest and egg updates
06:26 – Kākāpō technology
07:26 – Nest tech
11:22 - The train station
13:32 - Nest controller
16:09 - Morning updates
18:28 - Closing credits…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details