Sirocco the celebrity kākāpō remains AWOL

Monday, 4 December 2017

A flightless parrot who once shot to fame trying to have sex with a TV presenter, remains at large.

Bestowed the title of 'Official Spokesbird for Conservation' by Prime Minister John Key in 2010, Sirocco the kākāpō has neglected his duties of late.

He has not been sighted on his home, on a Fiordland island, since March 1, 2016.

The cheeky parrot evaded two dedicated ground searches in December 2016 and February 2017, including one with a specialist detector dog.

**READ MORE:

* Superstar Sirocco in spotlight again 

* Saving the kākāpō on Codfish Island**

'We're not worried though', Department of Conservation kākāpō operations Manager Deidre Vercoe said. 

'He's on a predator-free island and is an otherwise healthy, young – if a bit quirky – kākāpō so there's no need to be concerned for his safety.'

The parrot shot to worldwide fame after a BBC documentary featured him trying to mate with presenter Mark Cawardine, much to the amusement of co-presenter Stephen Fry.

Sirocco had not slipped his tracker, but it appeared the transmitter failed as routine flyovers did not pick up his signal.

'Transmitters fail around 5 per cent of the time so it's not unusual for kākāpō to go 'off grid', Vercoe said.

She said the hormone-driven Sirocco would likely reappear during breeding season, despite not being a breeder.

With his 21st birthday coming up 'we'd love to catch up with him to celebrate so this summer we'll be setting out to search for him again'.

Previous missing bird cases have taken two to six years, she said.

'One kākāpō, Rangi, was found on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island after 21 years, so if he's going for the hide and seek record, he's got a long way to go.'

Sirocco has lived on his Fiordland island home with other male kākāpō since October 2015 after his last public outing at Zealandia in Wellington.