“This result shows the enormous power of social media to raise awareness of animals that are on the brink of extinction."

An extremely rare parrot is revealed as the world’s best-loved species after 14,500 votes were cast in an international online poll.There are just 150 of the ground-dwelling kakapo remaining in the world, mostly in New Zealand.The bird topped the vote run by the wildlife education charity Wildscreen which invited audiences to vote on their favourite species on its online wildlife resource, ARKive.Richard Edwards, chief executive of Wildscreen, said: “It has come as a bit of a surprise that the rare kakapo has been voted number 1. “When we launched the campaign, we wanted to increase awareness of the diversity of animals, plants and fungi, including those threatened with extinction. “We expected more high-profile animals such as the lion or meerkat to top our poll. “This result shows the enormous power of social media to raise awareness of animals that are on the brink of extinction. “By showcasing thousands of species threatened with extinction, ARKive aims to raise their public profile and use the power of wildlife films and photographs, and social media to help ensure their survival.” The kakapo is the star of a Youtube video which has had more than 5 million hits (see ‘Shagged by a rare parrot’ below), after the flightless parrot was featured in a Stephen Fry documentary. New Zealanders have also rallied behind the kakapo to raise awareness of the threat of extinction it currently faces. ARKive launched the poll to celebrate its 10 year anniversary. The centralised and digitised library includes more than 100,000 inspirational films and photographs of the world’s threatened species, including the extremely rare. It is a unique audio-visual record of life on Earth, for current and future generations.