The Whakatāne Kiwi Trust is having trouble locating its miracle chick, Tuati. Photo: Local Democracy Reporting
Whakatāne Kiwi Trust needs the community's help to find one of its birds - or rather, the signal that is throwing off its monitoring efforts.
Tuati is a young male kiwi that was released into the Kōhī Point Scenic Reserve two years ago. He has a transmitter fitted to his leg that is tracked by the trust to monitor his movements using telemetry instruments - or "pingers".
Ken Laurent, who runs the kiwi monitoring programme, said Tuati's signal could normally be picked up from the area around the Whakatāne Sport Fishing Club as the kiwi lived along the ridge of the escarpment above.
However, for the past five weeks, his signal was overridden by a much stronger one on the same channel, and the trust wants to find out who is transmitting it.
"We can't find some kiwi because the signals are being overridden. We've got some issues with different transmissions coming through on our telemetry gear.
"Each kiwi we track transmits on a different frequency. Tuati's transmitter is tuned to channel 28. This is a specific Department of Conservation frequency."
Laurent said it was not the first time another signal had caused monitoring problems. A previous issue with another transmitter on this channel had been traced to a goat collar that was left turned on in a desk drawer at Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
"We thought we'd solved that problem when they turned the collar off but now another signal has come in at 24 beats a minute overriding it and we don't know where it's coming from."
He said the signal was quite strong and could be picked up from the town wharf all the way around to Ōtarawairere Beach.
"There's a lot of radio stuff there. It could be fishing boats, we don't know."
Another kiwi they were having trouble tracking was on channel 3, with a signal that had 175 beats per minute overriding it near the top of Waiewe Street. However it was Tuati they were most concerned about.
"We need to find him reasonably quickly. Eventually, his transmitter will just fall off and he will be lost forever. We would never be able to find him again."
Whakatāne Kiwi Trust tracking guides Ken and Sue Laurent, and marketing co-ordinator Hillary Sheaff (centre), are keen to find the source of the radio signal that is interfering with their telemetry equipment (file photo) Photo: LDR / Troy Baker E3098-11
Tuati was a "miracle" chick hatched from an egg which trust volunteers had found abandoned in Ōhope Scenic Reserve. After candling the egg, they found it still had veins - a sign of viability.
The egg was rushed to the National Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua and Tuati hatched a few days later. He was reared at the hatchery until he reached the stoat proof weight of 1000 grams.
When checked in March this year, days before his second birthday, he weighed 1.8kg
If anyone has information that could help the trust with its monitoring signal issue, Laurent could be contacted on 027-4100797.
Whakatāne Kiwi Trust is a charitable trust supported by Whakatāne and Kawerau district councils, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and the Department of Conservation.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air