By Jessica Rowe
The death of a critically endangered Kakapo has gone unnoticed for three months, despite it being fitted with a state of the art transmitter.
It’s the sixth Kakapo to die in the past year and is a blow for conservationists desperate to save the native bird.
There are only 125 Kakapo left, and Forest and Bird spokesperson Nicola Vallance says the loss means recovery efforts must continue.
“Every death is a set back when you have got a species that is nationally critical so the kakapo recovery programme has had great successes, but we are not out of the woods yet. It is slow and steady and I guess the message is we can't take our foot off the accelerator.”
Barnard was found dead on the weekend on Cod Fish Island .
Rangers searched for him to put on a new transmitter, and say he could have been dead for up to three months.
Last season, the Kakapo recovery team introduced new advanced transmitters - which can tell if a bird is on the move, nesting or mating.
It can also tell them if it is alive, but the mortality signal for Barnard wasn't detected.
Stuart Cockburn from the Department of Conservation says there could be a number of reasons for the oversight.
“Potentially it is a teething problem, more likely it is because the ranger has misinterpreted the data coming off these new complex transmitters.”
The Kakapo team says they hope to iron out any teething problems as they keep watch over our most endangered native parrot.
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