Ron Moorhouse

Ron Moorhouse is one of two scientists on the team. However, he doesn’t spend any time in a lab or looking down a microscope.

“A strength of our team is that there’s a large amount of overlap in our skills and backgrounds so I’m not the only one who does research and I also do a variety of other things, including mundane work, like running stoat-trap lines, from time to time.”

Ron was once a Kakapo Protection Officer (over a decade ago!) and so has seen considerable change in the fortunes of kakapo.

“When I was a KPO, there were only 53 birds and only 19 of them female – things were dire!”

Ron joined the National Kakapo Team in 2003, something he regards as the conservation equivalent of ‘making the A-team’. “After the formation of the NKT in 1995 kakapo went from “basket case” to success-story in the space of just seven years. It’s the job of the current team members to keep this momentum going.”

Ron’s main role has become sourcing required scientific expertise from within New Zealand and overseas. “We have established a number of very productive partnerships with internationally recognised experts in a variety of fields, from genetics to artificial insemination to nutrition.”

Kakapo conservation has gone through several distinct phases; discovery, rescue and intensive management. Ron thinks kakapo conservation is now entering a new phase in which science is to the fore. “Now that the kakapo’s rapid slide towards extinction has been stopped, we finally have the time and resources to try to solve problems, such as low hatching success and inbreeding that previously had to be put on the back-burner.”

“Combining specialist knowledge from outside experts with our knowledge of the biology and natural history of the bird has to be the best way forward.”