The Dunedin-based Tawaki Project has plans to broadcast live video feeds from a tawaki (or Fiordland crested penguin) colony in Milford Sound to a new dedicated website.
The Tawaki Project co-founder Dr Thomas Mattern said the live stream was inspired by both the international success of the Department of Conservation’s Royal Albatross Cam and the penguin’s recent appearance in the latest season of Sir David Attenborough’s documentary series Our Planet.
However, "TawakiCam" would also feature a significant citizen science component, Dr Mattern said.
The website that hosted the streams would allow viewers to log "anything you see as you see it".
"It’s going to be a cool way to connect the public to this species that is otherwise super difficult to observe," Dr Mattern said.
There were to be two cameras simultaneously recording: one trained at a nest and the other at the main path the penguins took from the water to their rainforest colony at Harrison Cove, the main study site for researchers at the Tawaki Project.
Tawaki Project researchers had been working with the birds there since 2015, and the majority were now micro-chipped, Dr Mattern said.
A transponder unit on the path could identify the bird that appeared on the stream and provide additional information about the individual to the viewers.
Vital information about when the first tawaki returned to the forest after their winter migration, or when they started establishing their nests, could be logged by viewers.
The project team did not want to work in the forest when the penguins were breeding, and so the cameras and other required infrastructure would not be installed until March or April, after the birds’ annual moult.
The stream would then launch in July or August when penguins returned to the forest, Dr Mattern said.
A fundraising page has been established to help with costs, and yesterday afternoon had raised $9734 towards a minimum target of $12,500.
