Ancient kakapo dies despite three-hour op

An endangered kakapo that may have been nearly 100 years old has died at Auckland Zoo despite a three-hour emergency operation last night.

The bird, named Lee, had been moved from Fiordland in April after he suffered lead poisoning - believed to be linked to fishing sinkers or buckshot.

Just a week ago the zoo said Lee had been saved and was to be returned to Codfish Island in Fiordland.

In a statement the zoo said Lee died last night and a post-mortem revealed he died from a small tear in the side of his crop – the sac-like part of the bird's digestive system where food is stored before it enters the stomach.

The tear caused food to escape into the surrounding tissues, resulting in severe inflammation.

Vets also discovered several areas of thinning in the crop wall, which they say could have predisposed Lee  to this type of injury.

"A tear in the crop is the equivalent of a stomach rupture in a human with the resulting, and often fatal, peritonitis," says the zoo's Centre for Conservation Medicine senior vet, Dr Richard Jakob-Hoff. 

"While working to repair this injury, Lee's heart stopped twice, but we managed to resuscitate him. However, he went into cardiac arrest again at the end of the procedure, and this time we were unable to bring him back – the shock on his system just too great."

He said that he and the rest of the vet team were devastated by Lee's death.

Until Monday evening Lee, a founder kakapo who could be up to 100 years old, appeared to be in good shape, was behaving normally, and continuing to put on weight.

However, by Tuesday morning he had deteriorated and had not digested any of the food from his last feed.

"When he arrived, Lee was emaciated, weighing just 1.2kg, and his survival was seriously in doubt, so gaining body weight was critical if he was going to pull through. 

Experience shows wild-caught adult kakapo do not readily adapt to eating in captivity, so tube feeding was the only way to provide adequate nutrition.

"Tragically, we had no warning signs of this tear to his crop, as all his test results were healthy," said Dr Jakob-Hoff.

The Department of Conservation said crop feeding has been used with great success over the years to nurture kakapo back to health. DOC's technical supporter officer for the Kakapo Recovery Team, Daryl Eason, said that since 2001, 21 kakapo have been crop fed and three were fed for periods of two and eight months. He said that without such feeding, it was highly unlikely they would be alive today.

"Age seems to be the main difference between these latter three birds and Lee – they were all juveniles, whereas Lee was potentially a very old bird," said Mr Eason.

"This highlights the inevitable – that we're going to see an increase in age-related deaths in kakapo. Forty-six per cent of the current population are of unknown age (at least 27 years) – these are the founding birds transferred from Stewart Island to the safety of Codfish or Little Barrier islands in the 1980s.

"Over the coming decades these birds will be reaching the end of their lifespan, so we expect to see the population stay relatively stable, as older birds die and are replaced with young.  The health of the population will however, continue to improve as this age structure shifts," said Mr Eason.

"All of this reaffirms that the kakapo population is still very vulnerable, and that the intense management programme we are running is critical to the survival of this species."

- © Fairfax NZ News