The kakapo is the world's heaviest parrot and among the most endangered birds, surviving only on predator-free islands in New Zealand under intensive conservation management involving individual monitoring of every bird.
Kakapo welfare under intensive conservation management involves genuine trade-offs between individual welfare and population survival. Frequent handling for monitoring and health checks causes acute stress. Hand-rearing compromises wild behaviour development. However, without intensive management the species would be extinct. The welfare of individual birds is balanced against the survival of the species.