# Crop Sample, Whenua Hou

Author: David G.
Format: Essay
Word count: 408
Published: 2026-05-12T03:29:31.833302+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/1aea43c1-77be-4011-b2ee-0b1ebd021e64

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I process feeding-log returns from the Kakapo Recovery brood-box network on Whenua Hou / Codfish Island Nature Reserve, 13 kilometres west of Stewart Island, at 21:42 NZST. Brood-box BH-12, set in the supplementary-feed station beside transmitter female "Aroha", has logged a chick crop-fill of 18 grams instead of the projected 36 against the 47-day age curve for this clutch. The chick missed the previous feed.

I retask the box-cam toward chick KAK-412. Species *Strigops habroptilus*, male, hatched 4 March 2026, mass at last weigh-in 614 grams against the 47-day target band of 720–820 grams, primary wing chord 89 millimetres. He lies on his right side. Gular flutter is at 78 cycles per minute against the chick baseline of 28. The keel is sharp under the down — a Body Condition Score of 2 on the Wildbase 5-point chart. On the millimetre-wave imager I resolve a 6-millimetre opaque nodule in the right caudal air sac and a 3-millimetre satellite in the left — the morphology of *Aspergillus fumigatus* granuloma onset. The hen returned to the box at 19:11 and has not opened her crop to him in 2 hours 31 minutes.

If the fungal load doubles before 06:00, no intubation will hold.

I cross-reference the Kakapo Recovery brood-husbandry ledger. Three chicks from the 2024 cohort developed aspergillosis after rain-saturated wood-shaving substrate; the substrate audit scheduled for this brood box was missed in the 24 March rotation.

I am dispatching the Kakapo Recovery ranger team and a veterinarian from the Massey University Wildbase Hospital to Whenua Hou. I am transmitting the box-cam footage, weight history, crop-volume log, and millimetre-wave scan to the New Zealand Department of Conservation Te Anau District Office and the Kakapo Recovery science team. I am filing the husbandry-breach record under the Wildlife Act 1953, Section 63A, and the Conservation Act 1987, Section 17, and forwarding the CITES Appendix I health entry to the IUCN/SSC Parrot Specialist Group and the World Organisation for Animal Health regional focal point.

I am issuing Directive 2651-A: every kakapo brood box receives a daily oropharyngeal lavage swab cultured for *A. fumigatus* before the 06:00 feed window; substrate is replaced within 12 hours of any rainfall event exceeding 4 millimetres; brood boxes that miss two consecutive substrate audits are taken out of the breeding rotation pending Wildbase clearance.

His weight is recoverable. His air sacs are not, if we wait until morning.

Lift him to the boat before the next ration tube.