Introduced mammalian predators, such as stoats, cats, and possums, have spread into most of the kea's range and caused episodic, high mortality events, but invasive control toxins cause lead-poisoning in kea.
Kea perceive visual, tactile, auditory, and chemical stimuli and communicate with a wide array of vocalizations and by posturing and fluffing their head feathers into facial expressions.
Kea have gained a reputation for attacking sheep and infecting them with a fatal, blood-poisoning bacteria and deforesting pastures, causing farmers to kill them.
Although Kea are protected within New Zealand by laws that prohibit their capture, mistreatment, and export, parrot-smuggling is a lucrative business and kea are captured for the black market pet trade.
As opportunistic, generalist omnivorous foragers, kea are primary, secondary, and higher-level consumers and only compete with the kaka for food resources.
The kea's diet varies by season as it feeds on plants during flowering seasons and relies on trash heaps, flesh, and bone marrow in the winter when foods are scarce.
Due to a life in an extreme alpine environment, kea are encouraged to opportunistically and inquisitively explore their surroundings and will commonly investigate and destroy human belongings.
Kea are opportunistic, generalist, omnivorous foraging parrots that rely on the leaves, buds, and nuts of southern beeches as an important part of their diet.
Kea are alpine parrots and inhabit temperate and subtropical/tropical moist lowland forests, shrubland, grassland, and even artificial terrestrial habitats, such as pastureland and urban areas.
Kea are crow-sized parrots, about 48 cm. long, that display sexual dimorphism as males weigh 20% more and are 5% longer than females and have 12-14% longer bills.
Koalas were nearly exterminated in the early 20th century because they were extensively hunted for their warm, thick fur and their environments were destroyed by fires caused by humans.
At high population densities, koalas can defoliate preferred tree species, causing tree death and subsequent koala population crash and making the species difficult to manage.
Climate change is expected to lead to an increased rate of koala population reduction over the next 20-30 years, and the impacts of other threats will magnify over this period.
The koala's population size has declined about 30% over the last 18-24 years due to climate change and a severe decline in inland regions most exposed to recent drought.
The koala is evaluated as "Vulnerable" on the IUCN Red List due to its projected rate of decline as a result of climate change, habitat destruction, and disease.