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The Kea parrot holds a lot of value in the culture of New Zealand and the vast and beautiful ecosystems. In New Zealand the Kea are considered a national treasure. Everyone loves this parrot because not only is it extremely unique, it also has a charismatic quality of life that inspires people to live life to the fullest. It would be a massive loss to let this parrot go extinct because it is one of a kind and it’s very important to the people of New Zealand and the many that travel there.
“Field-based foraging observations, coupled with fecal analyses, showed Kea were by far the most important extant alpine avian frugivore. Kea selected more fruiting species (21 vs. 17 species), consumed more fruit, and dispersed more seeds (8137 vs. 795) than all other birds combined” (“Kea ecology & communication,” 2021).
Though it may be indirectly, Kea produces excrements that pollinate, propagate and spread seeds and plant matter throughout the ecosystem. This allows new plants to grow and more nutrients to be added to the soil. As the birds do fly, some of the seeds and organisms the Kea transport would not get to these new and hard-to-reach places any other way. Kea are not the top of the food chain, and can provide nutrients for other creatures that also support the ecosystem. Ferrets and stoat both survive largely off baby and young-adult Kea and in turn are yet another component of the intricate circle of life in this desolate mountain range.
But why?
To save the Kea, we must first consider why they came to be in the mountains at all. Studies have shown that Kea were not always the mountain birds they are today. There is reason to believe that Kea moved and evolved to live in the mountains to escape human activity- the very thing that threatens them most. “Physiologically, there is nothing to stop the Kea from surviving at lower altitudes. They’re a generalist. It will survive from sea level to alpine.”(McClure, 2021). This is a prime example of genetic adaptation. Alpine biomes are thought to have more persistence than other more frequented areas because of their isolation and open space (Edwards et al., 2007). Encouraging more space to be given to the birds and managing the number of hikers in protected areas could very well give the Kea the environment they need to flourish without the threat of human involvement.
If the Kea go extinct, we have not only lost a key part of our own worldly heritage but we no longer have a way to control the populations of shrub berries, insects, or other small rodents that the Kea eat. The climate of New Zealand would start to decline as populations of rodents sky-rocketed, while some berry plants ceased to reproduce due to the lack of seeds spreading throughout the ecosystem. The Kea are dire in the continuous evolution of many other avian species, as they are closely related to falcons, hawks and other birds of prey. Without Kea, the food chain would collapse, the evolution of birds would be skewed, and the beckoning calls would cease to be heard.
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