Listening at night for kiwi calls is the best way to monitor a population’s health from year-to-year. But call monitoring usually happens during the winter months, and requires eager volunteers to brave the cold.
Our fantastic volunteers have been helping listen for kiwi in our Kiwi Sanctuary north of Colville since the project began, and Kiwi call counts and numbers heard have been increasing since 2005. But this year, technology is lending a hand…
This winter, we trialled the use of Bioacoustic recorders in our Coromandel Area School Kiwi Project. The recorders allow data to be collected over a much longer period, with considerably less man-hours required than using volunteers to listen for Kiwi. During June we ran the recorders for 2 weeks in four sites in the bush above Coromandel, recording for six hours each night. We’ve just collected the recorders, but once we’ve analysed the data, it should give us a good indication of kiwi density around Coromandel Town.
Meanwhile our dedicated volunteer trappers continue to protect resident kiwi around Coromandel by catching stoats and other nasties. If you would like get involved with this project, please phone Lisa Kearney on 8667462.