Gareth Morgan to clone Kakapo as cat alternative

Gareth Morgen called for the eradication of cats from New Zealand. The pesty creatures are killing New Zealands native birds causing their extinction, he argued. In a bit to curb the minds of the people that just can’t do without the cuddles and cuteness of their Feline companions he is now proposing a cat alternative: Kakapo.

Kakapo "Hoki" demonstrating a two-way cat door, Maud Island. Photo: Gideon ClimThe flightless nocturnal parrot certainly has a lot of the same charm as cats. Their wide-eyed mystique certainly makes it popular with many people. Sirocco the best known of the Kakapo has been liked over 16000 times on Facebook and his youtube video has been screened over 5 million times. Like cats these parrots like to sleep all day and go out at night. They certainly can be affectionate as one conservationist found out. This night parrot mastered food hoppers and automated weighing scales so cat doors will be a piece of cake for them. Kakapo are native birds and not known to kill any other creature other then the occasional Rimu fruit. All in all the perfect New Zealand pet!

One problem however is that Kakapo have been on the brink of extinction for the last century and demand would vastly outweigh present supply. Just over 120 of these birds are presently in existence and their reproductions rate is so slow that they will remain rare for the foreseeable future.

But a recent TedX talk on deextinction inspired Gareth to develop a way to rapidly increase Kakapo numbers. In the talk Stewart Brand explains how Michael McGrew plans to use frozen germplasm to enable common Chickens to lay fertile eggs of the now extinct Passenger pigeon (10.50 sec). Frozen germplasm of the passenger pigeon however is not presently available. Kakapo gremplasm however is!

Kakaop skin cells can be reprogrammed to become Kakapo germ cells

With this technique Gareth is planning to build himself a henhouse full with chickens that produce fertile kakapo eggs. The supply of Kakapo could soon be endless. Enough Kakapo to wean New Zealand from its Feline addiction.

Transplanting the Kakapo germs cells into devolping chicken embryo's produces chickens that lay fertile Kakapo eggs.Gareth has assembled a team of microbiologist and work has commenced on producing Kakapo germplasm. If all goes according to plan Gareth will be presenting his first chicken derived Kakapo at the start of the second quarter of 2014.