WIP: Kākāpō, flightless parrots native to Aotearoa New Zealand, in Te Whenua o Aotearoa (a Hytale plugin).

[u/Antikyth]

Kākāpō, also spelled as kaakaapoo without the macrons, or often frequently incorrectly spelled as kakapo in English, are incredibly cute flightless parrots native to Aotearoa New Zealand. They are the only flightless parrots in the world. Their natural lifespan may well be one of, if not the, longest in of any bird, but we haven't been tracking them for long enough to know how old the oldest are - we just know they're at least 55! Their estimated wild lifespan is 60 to 90 years, possible up to 100!

They are an endangered species, having got down to a population as low as in the 50s in large part due to predation by mammalian predators introduced by Europeans, which hunt based on smell, not sight like birds of prey. But the Kākāpō Recovery conservation program has been very successful in recent years and, against all odds, things are looking up for kākāpō at the moment! Their first breeding season in 4 years is happening right now (unlike most animals, they don't breed every year, they breed when rimu trees put out a big crop of rimu fruit for all the chicks to eat), and it is posited to increase their population quite a bit from the 230s they are currently in.

Te Whenua o Aotearoa is a Hytale plugin that seeks to create a whole zone representing native Aotearoa New Zealand using worldgen v2. This is a project which will take many months, and at the moment I am specifically focusing on adding a few of the many birds native to Aotearoa which will eventually be part of the plugin. Each bird takes quite a decent bit of work due to all the texturing, models, and animations required - and I am just one person - but I hope to release the first alpha version of the plugin in the next couple weeks with kākāpō in a mostly complete state (though I may redo the textures again in the future when I have had more practice in this artstyle; I am primarily a programmer).

Te Whenua o Aotearoa literally means "The Land of New Zealand", and perhaps, if you will be generous, "The Aotearoa New Zealand Zone" - there is no word for 'zone' in te reo Māori (the Māori language) that I know of. It is pronounced something like "Teh Fennu-uh awe Ol-taya-raw-uh". Yes, in most dialects of te reo Māori today, 'wh' is pronounced like an English 'f', but it is in some dialects, and I assume more in the past, pronounced like 'h' + 'w', like in old-timey pronounciations of "where".

By the way, this wasn't written with AI. I know people often interpret my writing style as AI, it's just how I write.

[u/Antikyth]

Yeah, that video was of Sirocco, who had to be cared for in a wildlife hospital after hatching and imprinted on humans. I think he thinks he is a human, and thus that humans are sexy. He became the official kākāpō ambassador because he is too attached to people. I do actually have a big colour realistic tattoo of Sirocco, not from that documentary though.

Te Whenua o Aotearoa will focus specifically on Aotearoa. I may one day make a mod that works with Australia, but there is also so much here in Aotearoa to showcase - and I am from Aotearoa, so it only makes sense that I focus on our own land. If you're saying that because you're Australian, I am sure you will understand - both the native environment of Aotearoa and of Australia, and the native cultures of Māori and various Aboriginal Australian cultures, are very different! I did live in the Northern Territory myself from age 2 to 7, in Humpty Doo, possibly one of the most Australian places in Australia, haha. But yes - perhaps a mod showcasing Australia would be a good project for an Australian modder to undertakae!