Sirocco, a kakapo parrot, who is New Zealand’s spokesbird for conservation, owns an island and a private charter. By S Mallik
Sirocco Kakapo is the New Zealand ambassador for conservation and that is no easy task. He has fans all over the world and even has a group of people to manage his Facebook page and Twitter account. According to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Sirocco has a worldwide fan base and they hang on to every ‘squawk’ that comes out of his beak. Sirocco, a kakapo bird, is the official spokesbird for conservation of New Zealand.
A short movie by Ashwika Kapur was shown at the New Zealand High Commission which documented the life of the bird. The filmmaker, who graduated in Science & Natural History Filmmaking, from University of Otago, was intrigued by the life and the characteristics of the bird. “I never wanted my documentary to be preachy. I wanted it to be informative as well as entertaining.
Sirocco was an interesting choice because he was already making headlines and it was the perfect way to inform the audience about the rare kakapo breed which is critically endangered,” said the filmmaker whose love for animals started at a very young age. She shared, “I turned my bedroom into a mini zoo and reared a lot of stray animals.”
Ashwika was a child artist in Kolkata and was the face of many commercials. It was her mother’s idea to combine her passion for films and animals. The documentary titled Sirocco — How a Dud Became a Stud, won Ashwika the Green Oscar in a Global Category this year.
As interesting as his life may sound, Sirocco’s journey to stardom was not an easy one, and the documentary trails exactly that but in an informative way. Sirocco was hatched on March 23, 1997 on Codfish Island off the Pacific Coast and within three weeks, he developed a respiratory problem. He was taken away from his mother and was taken care of by rangers from the department of conservation. He grew up amidst humans and was accustomed to human touch. Since then Sirocco became so attached to humans that he failed to recognise himself as a kakapo.
Ashwika said, “Sirocco even refused to mate with the female kakapo birds which is really disturbing because as of now there are only 125 kakapo parrots in the world found only in New Zealand.” It was, however, a video of Sirocco trying to mate with zoologist Mark Carwardine in 2009 that catapulted him to fame. Mark along with the television presenter Stephen Fry had visited Codfish Island as part of a series for last Chance to See, focussing on endangered species around the world.
While they were filming, Sirocco hopped onto Carwardine’s head and attempted to mate with him. The video and Fry’s comment, “Sorry but this is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. You are being shagged by a rare parrot,” was an instant hit on YouTube. “It received more than 7,00,000 views in the first week itself. Sirocco’s Facebook and Twitter accounts were set up after this incident and it immediately attracted thousands of followers,” Ashwika said. Subsequently, in 2010, Sirocco was made the spokesbird for conservation by the New Zealand government.
Kakapos are also called owl parrots and are therefore, nocturnal in nature. To catch the ambassador awake in daylight was difficult for Ashwika. “Just to get into the conservation area was tough. And filming Sirocco awake was far tougher because he used to be asleep most of the times. On top of that I had limited time and the window of opportunity was small. I had this constant pressure of not missing a single moment with him,” recalled the young director who is now filming documentaries in the jungles of India.
Sirocco was, however, not Ashwika’s first choice as the subject of her documentary. She wanted to base it on the dead penguins that were being washed up the New Zealand coast. “But there was no way that could have made a proper ending to the subject. I believe the best way to start a documentary is to visualise the ending. In case of penguins, I had no clue on how to bring the documentary to the end. An open-ended documentary is risky and leaves room for a lot of speculations.
Animal activists and scientists could provide no reason for their deaths. But Sirocco was a different ball game altogether. Not only did I start the documentary with Sirocco’s arrival in his chartered flight, I had the liberty to end it at the same place with him preparing for another diplomatic trip,” she rounded off.