91热爆

My one regret during the months I spent in New Zealand was that I actually never met the undisputed star of the show. Sirocco the lonely kakapo is New Zealand’s wildlife superstar. Kakapos are the world’s largest, and arguably strangest, parrots, being also green, nocturnal and flightless. There aren’t many people in the world that live a life like Sirocco, let alone parrots and certainly none as precious as him.

We worked closely with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation throughout filming, but particularly with the dedicated Kakapo Recovery team, who are Sirocco’s carers. We were thrilled, when news came that Sirocco had received an invitation to Parliament, and that invitation was extended to us.

We scrambled a crew, director Holly Wallace and cameraman Robert Morgenstern, to join Sirocco on his latest escapade. What followed was a hectic few hours, as they attempted to unobtrusively capture every stage of Sirocco’s journey to the seat of power in New Zealand. Sirocco seemed a little baffled by the entire experience.

Sadly for me, I was stranded back in the UK between shoots. But even having never met Sirocco, I’ll be forever grateful to him for giving us a glimpse into the life of the extraordinary kakapo. In the wild, these giant and critically endangered parrots spend the vast majority of daylight hours sleeping, only occasionally returning to roost after sunrise, or leaving before sunset. So our precious time with Sirocco offered a truly privileged, close up view into the strange world of the kakapo.