Strigops habroptila
G.R.Gray, 1845 · speciesAt a glance
Sources7 archives
Databases and archives Strigops habroptila's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation2 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility250 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI22 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics32 specimens↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The kakapo is a very large parrot, growing to a length of 64 cm. The feathers on their backs are moss-green, mottled with black chevrons, and dark brown blotches. The top of the tail has similar markings on a green-brown background. The feathers of the throat, breast and under the tail are a soft, mottled, yellow-green color. The scientific name Strigops habroptilus means "owl-like" in reference to the disc of brown, bristle-like feathers around the ivory colored beak, the eyes, and the ears. Females are usually similar to males in coloration, though slightly smaller in stature. Immature birds are duller in coloration. The kakapo is the only flightless parrot in the world and its wings, while present, are small and insignificant. The sternum lacks a keel, as there is no need for a place for flight muscles to attach. The kakapo usually holds its body in a horizontal position with the bristle feathers on its face nearly touching the ground. If alarmed or feels like it must defend itself, it will stand upright.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology14
Life cycle & reproduction9
Diet & foraging6
Habitat & environment4
Other traits1
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Strigops habroptila has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Strigops habroptila carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Strigops habroptila. Above itBeside it, each dot is one dated fossil find — few enough to count, so they are drawn individually rather than as a graph. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil. Where the DNA reaches further back than the oldest fossil, the gap is hatched: the ghost lineage. It means the lineage was already out there, but has left us nothing we have dug up yet.
How it livedPBDB
Record type262 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions15 of 17 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Auckland, NZ | 36 |
| Toronto, CA | 10 |
| Cambridge, US | 7 |
| Geneva, CH | 6 |
| Paris, FR | 3 |
| Iowa City, US | 2 |
| Seattle, US | 2 |
| Berkeley, US | 2 |
| Philadelphia, US | 1 |
| Helsinki, FI | 1 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 1 |
| Los Angeles, US | 1 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 1 |
| Brussels, BE | 1 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 1 |
| South Kensington, GB | 1 |
| Zografou, GR | 1 |
Where the DNA of Strigops habroptila was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.