Bird of the Year 2020: 1500 fraudulent votes placed for little spotted kiwi

Tuesday, 10 November 2020

A meeting between a little spotted kiwi and a tuatara was a rare occurrence. (Video first published in 2018)

Organisers of the highly-contested Bird of the Year competition are in a flap after 1500 fraudulent votes were placed in favour of the pukupuku/little spotted kiwi.

Forest and Bird said the illegitimate votes briefly catapulted the bird to the top of the pecking order.

They were all placed between 1am and 3am on Monday and were discovered that afternoon.

Forest and Bird was forced to intervene after 1500 illegitimate votes were placed in favour of the little spotted kiwi.

The votes have since been removed from the competition.

**READ MORE:

* The bad boys of Bird of the Year 2020

The little spotted kiwi is the smallest of the five types of kiwi.

* Bird of the Year gets political; a postponed election, campaigns, alliances, and Tiktok

“It's lucky we spotted this little kiwi trying to sneak in an extra 1500 votes under the cover of darkness!” Bird of the Year spokeswoman Laura Keown said.

The kererū, known for getting drunk off fermented fruit and falling out of trees, was voted Bird of the Year in 2018.

“But they’ll have to play by the rules like all of the other birds to win the competition.”

Keown said the fraudulent votes were spotted by a volunteer election scrutineer.

“It’s extremely easy for him to see when there’s a flood of illegal votes coming through.”

The spotted shag/parekareka is also in the running for Bird of the Year 2020.

It’s not clear where the illegitimate votes came from, but it is believed one person is involved as the votes are all linked to one IP address.

It’s likely the person used an email replication programme to cast thousands of votes “really quickly”, Keown said.

There is no indication that the votes were lodged from overseas, she added.

The world's only alpine parrot, the kea, took out Bird of the Year in 2017.

Those who consider cheating should use their energy and enthusiasm “get out and campaign” for their favourite bird, Keown said.

She said she hoped the competition wouldn’t be embroiled with any further cheating.

“We can only assume that they love birds so much, and they are so excited about protecting our native species that they try these fraudulent tactics.”

However, she said the fraud would not be escalated or reported to the police.

Little spotted kiwi campaign manager Emma Rawson said voter fraud is not the kiwi way.

“As Aotearoa’s national emblem, little spotted kiwi represents New Zealanders' values of democracy, fairness, equality, and honesty.

“We don’t condone the illegal votes cast towards our cute little bird.”

Voting for Bird of the Year closes at 5pm on Sunday, November 15.

Last year, the yellow-eyed penguin/hoiho reigned supreme.

It is not the first time fraudsters have attempted to sway the results of the annual competition.

In 2015, campaign was briefly hijacked by a couple of over-zealous kōkako lovers who lodged hundreds of illegal votes from a hacked computer.

In 2018, the shag became the centre of the dodgy vote scandal after it received 310 “dubious” votes from an IP address in Australia.