A mischievous parrot has become a local sensation after stealing a GoPro and filming remarkable hillside views in Fiordland, New Zealand.
The Verheul family travelled to the Kepler Track in Fiordland National Park for a hiking trip.
While in their hut, they placed a GoPro on the balcony after they were joined by some kea.
However, they were left shocked when one of the bird’s snatched the camera and flew off, filming its flight down the hillside.
The footage captures the airborne escape, as well as the kea’s flight down a hillside forest and its eventual descent on a rocky outcrop.
Speaking to news outlet Seven Sharp, father Alex Verheul said the family managed to track down the camera by following the loud bird sounds.
He said: "We just followed the sound down there, we could see them hanging out in a tree - they’d obviously heard us coming and abandoned the GoPro - and my son decided to go check the rocks where it looked like a good place for a bird to land, and there it was still sitting there, still filming."
Kea is a rare and endangered species of alpine parrot native to New Zealand.
The bird is notorious in the country for its acrimonious relationship with humans and is known for attacking rubber windscreen wipers on cars, rifling through tourists’ bags to steal wallets and passports and even picking on sheep, much to the fury of farmers.
Only around 3,00 to 7,000 of them continue to live in the wilds of New Zealand, according to Canberra’s Department of Conservation.
