{"id":7081,"date":"2023-08-09T05:18:58","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T17:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7081"},"modified":"2023-08-09T05:18:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T17:18:58","slug":"mystery-transmission-blocking-kiwi-tracking-signal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7081","title":{"rendered":"Mystery transmission blocking kiwi tracking signal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"c-sub-nav c-sub-nav--inline \"><\/div>\n<div class=\"content__primary u-divider-bottom@until-medium\">\n<div class=\"article article-news article-news-495389\">\n<header class=\"article__header c-story-header\">\n<div class=\"o-kicker\"><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"c-story-header__headline\">Mystery transmission blocking kiwi tracking signal<\/h1>\n<div class=\"c-story-header__meta\">\n<div class=\"c-byline\">\n<div class=\"c-byline__author\">\n<div class=\"author-detail\">\n<div class=\"author-social\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article__body\">\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--n_sHWmFO--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1691482353\/4L4KX7W_Tuati_2_jpg\" alt=\"Whakat\u0101ne Kiwi Trust kiwi trust is having trouble locating its miracle chick, Tuati.\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1407\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">The Whakat\u0101ne Kiwi Trust is having trouble locating its miracle chick, Tuati.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0Local Democracy Reporting<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Whakat\u0101ne Kiwi Trust needs the community&#8217;s help to find one of its birds &#8211; or rather, the signal that is throwing off its monitoring efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Tuati is a young male kiwi that was released into the K\u014dh\u012b 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 &#8211; or &#8220;pingers&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Ken Laurent, who runs the kiwi monitoring programme, said Tuati&#8217;s signal could normally be picked up from the area around the Whakat\u0101ne Sport Fishing Club as the kiwi lived along the ridge of the escarpment above.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-half photo-right four_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--S8SIhOrt--\/c_scale,f_auto,q_auto,w_576\/v1661378546\/4LMI5FZ_Alternative_LDR_logo_PNG\" alt=\"\" width=\"576\" height=\"126\" \/><\/div>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can&#8217;t find some kiwi because the signals are being overridden. We&#8217;ve got some issues with different transmissions coming through on our telemetry gear.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Each kiwi we track transmits on a different frequency. Tuati&#8217;s transmitter is tuned to channel 28. This is a specific Department of Conservation frequency.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We thought we&#8217;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&#8217;t know where it&#8217;s coming from.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said the signal was quite strong and could be picked up from the town wharf all the way around to \u014ctarawairere Beach.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of radio stuff there. It could be fishing boats, we don&#8217;t know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--1Q9DHOur--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1670387396\/4LH5264_trio_jpg\" alt=\"Kiwi Trust volunteers Ken and Sue Laurent with marketing and funding co-ordinator Hilary Sheaff point out the footprints with one of their kiwi monitoring aerials.\" width=\"1050\" height=\"690\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">Whakat\u0101ne 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)\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0LDR \/ Troy Baker E3098-11<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Tuati was a &#8220;miracle&#8221; chick hatched from an egg which trust volunteers had found abandoned in \u014chope Scenic Reserve. After candling the egg, they found it still had veins &#8211; a sign of viability.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>When checked in March this year, days before his second birthday, he weighed 1.8kg<\/p>\n<p>If anyone has information that could help the trust with its monitoring signal issue, Laurent could be contacted on 027-4100797.<\/p>\n<p>Whakat\u0101ne Kiwi Trust is a charitable trust supported by Whakat\u0101ne and Kawerau district councils, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and the Department of Conservation.<\/p>\n<p>RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mystery transmission blocking kiwi tracking signal The Whakat\u0101ne Kiwi Trust is having trouble locating its miracle chick, Tuati.\u00a0Photo:\u00a0Local Democracy Reporting Whakat\u0101ne Kiwi Trust needs the community&#8217;s help to find one of its birds &#8211; or rather, the signal that is throwing off its monitoring efforts. Tuati is a young male kiwi that was released into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7083,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7081\/revisions\/7083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}