Kakapo sex

[Tale]

Subject of a radio documentary while I was working. I googled them afterwards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo#Reproduction

Kakapo are the only parrots in the world that have a lek breeding system.[20] Males loosely gather in an arena and compete with each other to attract females. Females watch the males display, or "lek".[21] They choose a mate based on the quality of his display; they are not pursued by the males in any overt way. No pair bond is formed; males and females meet only to mate.

The only time men and women ever meet is for public group sex (in an arena), where the sexiest man gets all the women.

To attract females, males make loud, low-frequency (below 100 Hz) booming calls from their bowls by inflating a thoracic sac.[6][22] They start with low grunts, which increase in volume as the sac inflates. After a sequence of about 20 loud booms, the volume drops off. The male Kakapo then stands up for a short while before again lowering his head, inflating his chest and starting another sequence of booms. The booms can be heard at least one kilometre (0.6 mi) away on a still night; wind can carry the sound at least five kilometres (3 mi).[20] Males boom for an average of eight hours a night; each male may produce thousands of booms in this time. This may continue every night for three or four months during which time the male may lose half his body weight. Each male moves around the bowls in his court so that the booms are sent out in different directions.

Women judge sexiness based on how loud the man can grunt. A sexy man's grunting can be heard 5km away and consume half his body weight (before the sex).

Kakapo are critically endangered; only 86 living individuals are known, all of which have been given names.

Contestant #1, Contestant #2 ... ?

[Endie]

The fact that you used "men" and "women" instead of "males" and "females" made this somewhat startkling at first.  That said, on a skim reading I thought it was just those crazy Japanese again.

[schild]

It should be pointed out that these birds are fucking awesome looking:

[Tale]

[Righ]

Fellow kiwis Flight of the Conchords need to write a song about these caca-poo.

[Nevermore]

A population of 86 certainly proves that system works!

[IainC]

A population of 86 certainly proves that system works!

They're a reasonably large and flightless bird that tastes nice. The kakapo equivalent of Barry White and rohypnol isn't going to turn that around.

[WindupAtheist]

Kakapo are the only parrots in the world that have a lek breeding system.

Kakapo are critically endangered; only 86 living individuals are known, all of which have been given names.

[Phildo]

Who gets to name a Kakapo?  And how do I become this person?

[Abagadro]

Sage grouse do really impressive lek behaviors as well. The reason they are becoming extinct is because we keep developing all the land that they used to use to create their leks.

[cmlancas]

Is Mister Flying Pants taken? 

[Riggswolfe]

Sage grouse do really impressive lek behaviors as well. The reason they are becoming extinct is because we keep developing all the land that they used to use to create their leks.

I think their women are just to picky.

Female parrot: "Oh hell no, not if you were the last parrot on Earth!"
Male: "Umm...have you looked around lately? I almost am!"