It verged on the tragic. After years of concerted conservation efforts, one of the world’s rarest parrots, the kakapo, had been saved from extinction – only for the birds to become infected by a deadly bacterium.
The disease quickly killed three of the birds, and threatened to wipe out the remaining 83 individuals living in New Zealand. Early reports suggested the bug was being transmitted by conservation staff handling the kakapos as part of a breeding programme designed to safeguard their future.
But on 20 July, the kakapo was given the all-clear, after a recovery team intervened to stem the spread…
