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Vote rigging in the 2015 Bird of the Year contest



The 2015 New Zealand Bird of the Year contest was almost tainted by vote rigging. Two admirers of the dark-blue bird, kokako, rigged hundreds of votes so that their much-loved bird could win the coveted Bird of the Year title (The Telegraph, November 11, 2015).

A few days before voting closed, the bar-tailed godwit – a brown coastal bird – was in the lead. But then, in a matter of hours, the kokako – an endangered forest bird, native to New Zealand – took the lead. It was a surge that attracted the attention of the contest organizers. Someone used fake email addresses to vote over 200 times for kokako, said the Bird of the Year coordinator, Kimberley Collins.

The fake votes were identified by a competition campaign manager for the kokako. Fifteen-year-old Oscar Thomas noted the surge and contacted officials because he wanted to protect the integrity of the bird. He said, ‘we’re surprised someone would rig such a light-hearted contest and taint the name of such a beautiful bird.’

The Bird of the Year contest – now in its 11th year – is organized by Forest & Bird. Forest & Bird were able to track the fraudulent votes to the same IP email address and to two young bird enthusiasts. The two offenders had their votes deleted.

The winning bird was the bar-tailed godwit. Second was the kokako, and the kaka was third.



The Bird of the Year – the bar-tailed godwit – is ‘a stunning and prestigious bird’ for any New Zealand bird watcher. It is a migratory bird, traveling from Alaska to New Zealand every year, taking just nine days to fly 11,000 kilometres – the longest migration of any bird in the world. The competition campaign manager for the bar-tailed godwit, Keith Woodley, said, ‘When they get here, they look absolutely exhausted. The first thing they do is have a drink to rehydrate and then they go to sleep. Eventuallly they start feeding to make up for the huge amount of weight they lose during the flight.’ It is estimated that 80,000-100,000 godwits arrive in New Zealand from late September. But with numbers declining the godwit is now on the ‘near threatened’ list.

The winning bird can be seen in New Zealand near Auckland – at the Kaipara and Manukau harbours – at the Firth of Thames on the northern coast of the north island, at Farewell Spit on the northern tip of the south island, and at the Avon-Heathcote estuary near Christchurch.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/11987054/New-Zealand-Bird-of-the-Year-contest-rocked-by-voting-scandal.html
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