So, Do Kakapos SWIM Like Bricks?

Apparently NOT, as we will see...

Douglas Adams famously wrote in Last Chance To See...

It is an extremely fat bird. A good-sized adult will weigh about six or seven pounds, and its wings are just about good for waggling a bit if it thinks it's about to trip over something - but flying is completely out of the question. Sadly, however, it seems that not only has the kakapo forgotten how to fly, but it has also forgotten that it has forgotten how to fly. Apparently a seriously worried kakapo will sometimes run up a tree and jump out of it, whereupon it flies like a brick and lands in a graceless heap on the ground.

But in this article at Stuff.co.nz, reporter Cherie Howie discovers that Kakapos don't struggle quite so much in the water. Cherie recounts the experiences of DOC ranger Leigh Joyce who thought she was about to lose Sirocco in a drowning incident...

Leigh, who lives on the island with husband Richard Walle and their two young children, says she was on the jetty when she saw Sirocco running towards her.

Then, to her horror, he jumped on to the railing, looked over the edge and leapt into the water.

"I couldn't believe it. I thought I was going to have to jump off and rescue him, do CPR on a kakapo but he swam butterfly, using his wings, to the shore, shook himself off and was fine.

"Kakapo can't fly but they can swim", she adds with a laugh.

RELATED: Mosher visited Sirocco during the Kakapo Encounter event back in 2006.