Kakapo Analysis

     So, for my Population AP, I decided to dissect and analyze the Strigops habroptilus, more commonly known as the owl parrot or kakapo. The kakapo is a herbivore, meaning it mainly it eats plants and fruits in the wild. It lives in New Zealand, residing in more predator-free areas due to being endangered, though it was apparently able to live anywhere and adapt well.

    The behaviors of the kakapo are as follows: it's nocturnal, resting atop and camouflaging into the leaves or on the ground during the day, gathering food and doing what it needs to do during the night. It also is flightless, so it can glide down with its wings and climbs up with its feet. 

    For a more detailed description, here's a taxonomy chart I made:

Taxonomic Level	Your organism’s group	Key characteristics of group
Kingdom	Animalia	Multicellular, eukaryotic organisms
Phylum	Chordate	Notochord, dorsal neural tube, pharyngeal slits
Class	Aves	Wings, hard shelled eggs, high metabolism, 4 chambered heart
Order	psittacines	Found in tropical/subtropical areas, strong, curved, broad bill.
Family	Strigopoidea	Lives in New Zealand
Genus	Strigops	Nothing too notable
Species	S. habroptilus	The scientific name for the kakapo

For reference, here's a photo of the kakapo: 

Photo by Andrew Digby

Another part of the project is making a physical version of your animal, highlighting certain features of it. Here's mine:

Kakapo collage, by AR (me)

    While I couldn't highlight everything in this project, I did highlight some important things. One is its beak. They beak of the kakapo is very curved, because it is apart of the parrot order. Its wings, while shortened, and it laying hard-shelled eggs makes it Aves, or a bird. The spinal cord, represented by the parted cardboard, shows that is apart of the Chordata phylum, or simply put: vertebrae.

    While the kakapo is very similar to its fellow birds, it is also quite different as well. For example, let's compare it to budgerigars and owls. The similarities between the 3 are as follows: they all have talons, they all lay eggs, they all have beaks, and they all can turn their head more than we can. The similarities between the owl and kakapo are as follows: both are nocturnal. The similarities between the kakapo and budgerigar are as follows: both can be commonly found in more hotter climates and both are non-meat eaters. The kakapo is flightless, found in mainly New Zealand, and is a herbivore. The budgerigar is small, found in Australia, and can mimic human speech. Owls are round, and turn their heads farther, and eat meat. 

Here's a Venn diagram representing the similarities and differences: 

Venn diagram by AR (me)

We also learned about set theory and how to turn those statements into sentences. Here are 5 set theory statements:

- Kakapos are not felines.

- Kakapos are warm blooded. 

- Kakapos do not eat meat.

- Kakapos are birds who eat plants.

- Kakapos do live in New Zealand. 

This project was a bit challenging at the beginning for me. I t had a lot hurdles I had to overcome, but I think I did it. This AP also relates to a lot to what we did because we went over things like set notations at the beginning, talked about how we classify animals, and how we can combine the two. I feel like I could have done a better job ion the physical aspect and how it was made. I do think it could have been better.