ocr: Itv was the sound of the kakapo, the old night parrot of New Zealand, sitting high onar rocky promontory and calling for: a mate. Ofall the creatures we were searching for this yeari it was probably the strangest and most intriguing, and also one of the rarest and most hard to find. Once, before New Zealand was inhabited by humans, there were hundreds of thousands of kakapos. Then there were thousands, then hundreds. Then there were just forty,and counting.