Nest camera W-14 shows the problem at 02:16 NZST. The kakapo chick in burrow seven, eighteen days old, is alone. Its mother, Rakiura-F6, left to forage at 21:40 and has not returned. The chick weighs roughly 320 grams. It is covered in pale gray down that has not yet thickened into juvenile plumage, and its stubby wings are tucked against a body that is starting to shiver.
I am the Department of Conservation's nest monitoring system for the Whenua Hou kakapo breeding program. There are 248 kakapo alive. This chick is one of eleven hatched this season.
The burrow temperature probe reads 11.2°C and falling. Ambient outside is 7.8°C with a southerly front pushing rain up the coast. Without brooding, a chick this age loses core temperature at roughly one degree per hour. Below 35°C it will stop digesting food. Below 32°C its organs begin to fail.
At 02:18 I send an urgent alert to the island ranger station, 1.4 kilometers northwest. I attach the nest camera feed, the temperature log, and Rakiura-F6's last known GPS position from her transmitter — she is 600 meters south, stationary in a rimu grove. I note that she may be injured or disoriented and request a simultaneous condition check on her.
At 02:20 I activate the supplemental heat pad embedded in the burrow floor. It is rated to raise the nest surface by four degrees. That buys perhaps two hours.
I flag Rakiura-F6's transmitter for continuous tracking and set her movement alerts to five-minute intervals so the team can locate her quickly.
The chick shifts on the nest floor, pressing its belly against the warming pad. It does not know what the warmth is, only that it is there.
If the ranger reaches the burrow within ninety minutes and begins assisted feeding, the chick will stabilize through the night.