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Transponder gate is back

February 23, 2021 at 4:53 pm

The Tawaki Project transponder gate is back in business! After being down for almost a year due to hardware issues, we managed to get the gate back out this weekend, just in time to identify any of the tawaki that are about to finish their annual moult in Harrison Cove.

Milford Sound/Piopiotahi on a gorgeous summer February morning.

There are still a good number of birds in the colony, although literally heaps of feathers everywhere indicate that many birds have already finished the job and are out and about. Identifying the penguins with our wand readers is nigh on impossible because the birds are way back in their rock shelters.

How are you supposed to get a transponder wand in there? But no worries, that’s what we have the transponder gate for!

But that’s what we got the transponder gate for. Any marked penguin that walks under it gets identified, and its walking direction determined (via light barriers). In the medium to long term, this data will help us to determine how many of bird return to breed each year and allow us to determine critical parameters to monitor the Harrison Cove’s tawaki population trajectory.

The Automatic Wildlife Monitoring System (aka “transponder gate”) which registers the ID and direction of any marked tawaki wandering through it.
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