Outdoorsmen Gabe Ross and Riley Meason run the Instagram account Weekend Mish, which shares their adventures in New Zealand. Ross recently posted a video showing him surrounded by rare mountain parrots called kea. Kea only live on the South Island of New Zealand, but even there, they’re not easy to find, since they prefer remote mountainous areas
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“I’m here in the mountains of New Zealand, and I’m currently getting stalked by a pack of cheeky mountain parrots,” Ross says in his Instagram post sharing a video of himself and the parrots. “These little fellas are called kea, and they’re the world’s only alpine parrot.”
According to the Kea Conservation Trust, kea (Nestor notabilis) are “sociable and highly intelligent birds” that face many threats. In fact, there are fewer than 7,000 of them left in the wild.
In Ross’s video, kea stare at him inquisitively, peck at his pack, and just hang around as he sits and films. He says the birds are so curious that they tend to destroy hikers’ camps as a hobby.
See Ross surrounded by rare mountain parrots here: