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Documentary series exploring the unique diversity of New Zealand's natural history.
This programme follows the life cycle of NZ’s “mischievous monkey in parrot feathers”, the kea. There are touching scenes of their gentle and extended courtship and the raising of chicks through the winter in a rock cavern nest. There are shots of the young birds at play (unusual in birds) and taking their first flight. The documentary shows how this remarkable bird uses its intelligence to adapt to environmental changes brought about by humans: parents take their young to do some “supermarket shopping” in a rubbish dump. There are also shots of keas taking eggs and sometimes chicks from petrel burrows. The kea’s taste for fats, so necessary for survival in the harsh mountain environment, is the origin of its attacks on sheep, a habit which led to 150,000 keas being killed by high country farmers and bounty hunters.