Shagged by a rare parrot | Last Chance To See - BBC
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as the origin of the Party Parrot emote and as the famous viral kakapo clip whenever kakapo come up.
What it is
A clip from BBC's Last Chance to See in which Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine meet Sirocco, a kakapo, who famously tries to mate with Carwardine's head. The kakapo is a critically endangered flightless New Zealand parrot.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2016 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Cites amatix · 2016-05 · on “Today is Towel Day”
During the filming of the TV series of Last Chance to See (with Stephen Fry) this happened [this video] with a Kakapo named Sirocco and he then became quite the internet celebrity: [LINK]
Cites EdwardDiego · 2022-03 · on “Endurance: Shackleton's lost ship is found in Antarctic”
I understand that, my two favourite New Zealand explorers (Charlie Douglas and George Dobson), are both very obscure but very admirable IMO - and they're obscure because they were the furthest from glory hounds that you can get. If you can get a hold of this book[0], it's a very interesting read (well, for me, anyway, being a Kiwi and all, especially the chapter where the editor collated Charlie Douglas' diary writings on our native birds, and what they were like for eating, which features some of our now rarest birds, he was quite fond of the flavour of kākāpō[1][2], which is critically endangered now). This article might be easier to access than an out of print book.[3] But, so many explor
Cites richdougherty · 2022-09 · on “Caring for the only known full kākāpō feather cloak in the world”
You may be able to see a real-life kākāpō by booking to see Sirocco, New Zealand's official spokesbird for conservation. I saw him once and he's pretty cool! Not sure if he's touring at the moment. [LINK] It wasn't quite as exciting as when Stephen Fry's film crew met him. The video of that encounter is the origin of the Party Parrot emote which you might have seen on Slack. [this video] [LINK]
Cites kemayo · 2022-09 · on “Caring for the only known full kākāpō feather cloak in the world”
If you're like me, you may mostly recognize kākāpō from a video that has gone viral a few times of one attempting to mate with a documentary cameraman's head: [this video]
Cites bitwize · 2025-01 · on “Lonely sunfish in Japan gets cardboard human friends”
Famously there is a kakapō named Sirocco who imprinted on humans to the point of being sexually attracted to them rather than to other kakapō. Which is both a problem because with only 244 individuals left, the species needs as many mating pairs as it can get; and a blessing because his international fame and fondness for humans makes him an effective "spokesbird" for conservation. Here he is mounting and having a go at Mark Carwardine: [this video] "You are being shagged by a rare parrot!"