Chick and egg timers help protect kiwis
12 May 2008
Electronic chick and egg timers are being used to improve the survival rates of kiwi in the wild.
The new technology, developed by the Department of Conservation (DoC) and the Havelock North company Wildtech, halves the necessary labour time and saves about $160,000 for every 100 kiwi monitored.
The timers accurately read how long a kiwi has been incubating an egg so workers know exactly when to retrieve them for safe hatching in incubators at facilities like Rotorua's Kiwi Encounter at Rainbow Springs.
DoC kiwi sanctuary manager Jason Roxburgh says the smart sensors are a huge improvement on the old transmitters.
'This means we hassle the birds less, and reduce the risk of the male bird abandoning the nest if he knows it's been disturbed,' says Mr Roxburgh.
In the kiwi crèches the birds can then grow to a mature size in a predator-free environment before being released back into their home territory.
The software also indicates when chicks are hatched in the wild, enabling them to be held until they are old enough to repel attacks from predators such as stoats and ferrets.
Mr Roxburgh said it was not just a time saver and morale booster, but reduced the risks to staff from working in rugged terrain at night.
'Workers would go into the bush every two weeks and monitor the birds at close range to determine when a male kiwi was beginning to sit on the nest, in order to work out the optimum time to pick up eggs,' he explains.
This was time consuming and relied on educated guesses, while the new transmitters can be monitored from as far away as 5km.
Brown kiwi populations decline by four to five per cent each year if there is no predator or breeding management in place. But with management their numbers remain stable or increase.
The chick timers have recently proven successful in trials on the Coromandel Peninsula.
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