All-singing, all-dancing South Island kōkako robot joins hunts for elusive bird species

Wednesday, 1 January 2025

UC students have created a model South Island Kokako in the hopes of proving the bird is still alive and not extinct. It sings and moves and will be placed in the bush surrounded by cameras and recorders in the hopes it will attract a real bird.

An all-singing, all-dancing robot is joining the hunt for the elusive South Island kōkako.

The bird was listed as extinct in 2008 until 2013, when the Department of Conservation reclassified its status as ‘data deficient’ after a 2007 sighting was found to be credible.

South Island Kōkako Trust spokesperson Inger Perkins said the trust teamed up with five students from the University of Canterbury to create the model of a South Island kōkako to use as a lure.

The lure would be trialled over summer in areas like the Heaphy Track, Abel Tasman and Lewis Pass, surrounded by acoustic recorders and trail cameras, with the aim of getting a photo confirming the birds were still alive in South Island forests.

University of Canterbury students Will Maxted, left, and Sam Taylor work on their model kōkako.

Perkins said the trust had received more than 430 reports of possible encounters in the past seven years, since it launched a reward campaign. A quarter of the sightings were deemed ‘probable’.

The trust is offering $10,000 to anyone who provides information leading to confirmation the bird is still alive.

Perkins said if the trust could get actual proof of the South Island kōkako’s continued existence, it would be possible to mount a conservation effort to secure its future.

Students Freddie Pankhurst, Maxted, Taylor, Lydia Burnett and Eve Hudson.

“We continue to have search expeditions to key sites of interest and current lures in front of cameras include one static model, water containers and artificial berries.”

A previously used static kōkako model had not brought about any interaction from the species so far.

“The longer we don’t find any evidence the more the hope recedes, but we’re not giving up,” she said.

A more realistic, motion-capable model could prove more successful, and be a new strategy to gather data on bird species across New Zealand and the world.

“The students have just been extraordinary. It’s been a pleasure to behold,” Perkins said.

The model sings and moves and will be placed in the bush surrounded by cameras and recorders in the hopes it will attract a real bird.

The model came about after a chance meeting with Professor Emeritus Phil Bones from the University of Canterbury.

Perkins asked him if his students could create a prototype life-size electro-mechanical model of a South Island kōkako.

He enthusiastically accepted the opportunity and personally sponsored the students to create the model as a final-year project.

Mechanical engineering and mechatronics engineering students Freddie Pankhurst, Will Maxted, Samuel Taylor, Lydia Burnett and Eve Hudson designed and built the model to be deployed in the forest and operate independently in a West Coast bush environment for two weeks.

Bones said the students did “a brilliant job”.

The recordings and the batteries would be stored in a box beside the model, which was programmed to respond to any bird call that sounded like a South Island kōkako, he said.