The threatened native kaka population of New Zealand’s capital city is being killed by too much love.

Kaka is a native New Zealand parrot and there are roughly 500 of them in Wellington, living in parks and reserves close to suburban homes, as well as in the Zealandia sanctuary.



Last year 80% of the precious kaka chicks monitored by scientists from Wellington city council died, and they have now discovered why.



Food such as nuts, seeds, crackers and pieces of bread left out by well-meaning Wellingtonians for the adult birds are causing the young chicks to develop metabolic bone disease, when their parents regurgitate the food into their mouths.



Depending on how much of the inappropriate food the birds have consumed the disease can cause them to grow up with distorted limbs, severe weakness and bone abnormalities, including beaks that do not close properly and feet pointing the wrong way.



Four Kaka chicks tested last week by the council were all found to have differing levels of metabolic bone disease, and the scientists will give the chicks another two weeks to increase their strength and leave the nest. They will then decide whether they can survive on their own, or will have to be euthanised, as two were last year.



In its worst form the disease renders the birds practically helpless and they starve to death, or shatter their bodies when they hit trees while learning to fly.



“Last year we did autopsies on kaka chicks we found dead and in a number of them we found nearly every bone in their body had fractured because of the disease,” said Myfanwy Emeny, the council’s urban ecology team leader.

“The saddest thing about this condition is it is a preventable disease. People just love the birds, they are trying to do the right thing by feeding the parents but it is resulting in this horrible condition in the chicks.”

Emeny said kakas are naturally intelligent, and would return to the same houses everyday at the same time if they knew food was regularly left out for them.



But the kaka population was in no risk of going hungry without human offerings, because there were “plenty” of food sources for them occurring naturally in Wellington, including tree sap, grubs and flowers.



Emeny said the safest way to attract Kaka to your backyard was by planting native trees and leaving out dishes of water.



Six kaka were reintroduced to Wellington in 2002 after being extinct from the capital for more than 100 years. There are now an estimated 1,000-5,000 kaka around New Zealand.

