Some wildlife photographers spend hours, days, weeks, months, or even years searching for their subject. Photographers for National Geographic are often sent to locations in which they must set up camp in the middle of a rain forest or frozen tundra to wait until they find a particular rare species. However, this was not the case for zoologist Mark Carwardine who, in an attempt to photograph the rare Kakapo parrot, found himself quickly up-close and personal with his subject:
In the BBC series Last Chance to See, Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine travel the world in search of rare species on the brink of extinction. On one of their many treks, they visited the rare Kakapo parrot, who, after posing for a few shots, took a particular interest in Carwardine. Stephen Fry gets in as many jokes as he can while watching the parrot attempt to mate with his partner Mark.
Zoologist Mark Carwardine photographs the Kakapo
While Carwardine was in no real danger (other than a few scrapes on the neck) this video should remind us of how unpredictable animals can be and how safety should be a priority in photographing such subjects. On the other hand, this incident is quite humorous, and it’s hard to take very seriously, especially when you think about how Mark Carwardine may be the only person in existence to ever have been mated with by a Kakapo.
Kakapo attempts to mate with zoologist Mark Carwardine
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These Parrots indigenous to New Zealand are both intelligent and have a great sense of humour and that makes them extremely entertaining. When visiting the Zoo in Hamilton New Zealand, they had one that would play dead by lying on its back in the enclosure as stiff as a board legs sticking up in the Air, with it’s eyes closed and beak open. The visitors would panic, fetch the zoo keeper who when she entered the enclosure had the Parrot come back to life wanting her to feed it. The Zoo ended up having to put up signs telling the visitors to ignore the dead Parrot. So I am willing to bet that the Parrot was Laughing more at this than Stephen Fry was.