The friendship of two kākāpō recovering in Dunedin after complicated surgeries is offering hope in a month when other chicks are being hit by a deadly fungal disease.
One of the chicks at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital, Queenie, is recuperating after leg surgery, while the other, Espy, underwent world-first brain surgery at Wildbase Hospital, Massey University, two weeks ago.
The two are becoming fast friends.
"Which has been really good for our little Queenie chick because you don't want to hand-rear them," the Dunedin hospital's founder, Dr Lisa Argilla, said.
Queenie was originally sent there when a couple of weeks old after her mother stomped on and broke her leg on Anchor Island.