Lengthy wait for kakapo

Waiting all night for two kakapo to mate might not seem like some people's idea of fun, but Dunedin filmmaker Scott Mouat wouldn't have it any other way.

Hours of lying awake in the bush have paid off for Mouat, who has received national acclaim for his documentary The Unnatural History of the Kakapo.

In Palmerston North ahead of tonight's environmental film festival Reel Earth, where he is a finalist in the Best Feature Film and Best New Zealand film categories, Mouat said he was a wildlife filming addict.

An ex-military man, Mouat spent four years in the British army before chucking it in to make environmental films.

"I've always been into still photography, and I was at a stage in the army when I had to decide whether to spend the rest of my life in the army or find something else to do.

"I noticed there was a course in filmmaking [in Dunedin], went down there and did that and never looked back."

After graduating from the natural history filmmaking course at Otago University, Mouat spent four years making The Unnatural History of the Kakapo.

He follows the Kakapo Recovery conservation project, telling the story of how the rare parrot has been brought back from the brink of extinction.

A Spanish artificial insemination expert, dedicated rangers and the quirky kakapo itself feature in the 77 minute documentary, which has scooped awards from two film festivals.

"Most of what was happening was cutting-edge, so I never really knew what was going to happen," Mouat said.

"There's so many twists and turns to the story, I couldn't have written a film or a script better."

Filming a nocturnal bird was a challenge, with Mouat borrowing one of the only two high-definition infra-red cameras in the world, from Japan, to film in the dark.

He has the only known footage of the kakapo mating, which required him to spend every night for a month, from 9.30pm to 6.30am, waiting for the lovemaking to unfold in front of his lens.

"One of the things I absolutely wanted to get was mating, because no-one had ever got [it]. And I think it was the second to last night when the two birds performed, shall we say."

Mouat plans to push for more wildlife programming on New Zealand television, and continue to make environmental films.

The Unnatural History of the Kakapo will screen at Downtown Cinemas on Sunday at 8pm, as part of the Reel Earth programme.

- © Fairfax NZ News