Sirtrack Ltd - wildlife tracking equipment
A successful design-led
business producing high-quality
technology products
for the global market,
providing skilled jobs in a
small community, and aiding ecological management.
 Attaching a Sirtrack transmitter to a sedated rhinocerous in Zimbabwe. |
 Building componentry. |
 Attaching a transmitter to a juvenile kākā. |
A key theme for Government is growth and innovation, with an expectation that commercialisation from research, science and technology should improve the performance of New Zealand’s business and create new industries. Manaaki Whenua’s subsidiary company, Sirtrack Ltd, is doing just that.
Sirtrack Ltd custom-designs, manufactures and delivers high quality radio-telemetry products to wildlife researchers around the globe. The business has grown substantially — annual turnover grew from $0.5m in 1994/95 (its first full year of business) to $2.46m in 2003/04. In doing this, Sirtrack Ltd has firmly established itself as an employer offering secure jobs in the small Havelock North community — full-time permanent staff have expanded from four initially to 14 in 2003/04.
This year saw tremendous growth for the company in terms of new products. These include a ‘contact logger’, which records interactions between individual animals. The loggers are an exciting development — applications include documenting inter- and intra-species contact, particularly with reference to the spread of disease, presence/absence of animals at dens and other places of interest, and various reproductive parameters. Sirtrack successfully deployed 60 contact loggers on raccoons in the USA, sent 40 loggers for use on cattle in Australia, and is building 20 loggers for use on badgers in the UK.
Other interesting new products include lightweight satellite transmitters that are particularly suitable for tracking birds; injection-moulded housing for GPS units with field replaceable cells; new heart-rate and audio transmitters; and a timed-release collar. The timed-release collar was designed to simply drop-off the study animal at pre-programmed times — there is no need to catch the animal to retrieve the collar and transmitter.
Sirtrack also continues to support and supply telemetry equipment to what is believed to be the single largest terrestrial-telemetry project in the world — ‘Project Isabela’ in the Galapagos Islands. Its goal is to eradicate goats on the Islands. Sirtrack won the tender in November 2002 and supplied 690 VHF transmitters and 12 GPS collars, as well as the associated receivers, antennae and other equipment during the last financial year. In 2003/04, a further 49 VHF transmitters were supplied to the project.
One of the keys to the company’s success has been maintaining a high level of customer service and innovative customisation to deliver solutions to some fairly ‘unusual’ situations and challenging environments. In the last four years products have been exported to over 45 countries to track more than 450 species — from elephants to insects, Antarctic penguins to desert camels, marine mammals to mountain lions. An extensive range of VHF transmitters measure an animal’s activity, mortality, time since death, heart rate, body temperature and audio behaviour. Harnesses or collars, which carry the transmitter, are designed specifically for the target animal, and are produced by saddle-makers and others in the Havelock North community. Tracking antennae range from large permanent fixtures down to small hand-held aerials with collapsible arrays, which make them easy to slide into a field-worker’s backpack.
Sirtrack actively contributes to community programmes. Staff have undertaken to service radio-tracking equipment being used by the Lake Waikaremoana Hapū Restoration Trust, who are managing a significant kiwi recovery programme, through until June 2005 at no cost to the Trust.
Sirtrack’s manager retires
Sirtrack Ltd’s Manager, Dave Ward began his career in wildlife ecology
with DSIR. In the late 1960s, he started developing the electronic engineering ‘know-how’ to
build radio-tracking equipment that would enable him and his colleagues
to locate and follow their quarry through New Zealand’s dense bush,
even at night. The Sirtrack team that grew out of these activities continued
to develop and customise applications for an ever-increasing market in New
Zealand and off-shore, and in 1993 the business became a fully owned subsidiary
company of Manaaki Whenua.
Dave Ward retires at the end of 2004. All the Board, Managers and staff wish to acknowledge Dave’s skillful and resourceful dedication to wildlife research and to developing Sirtrack Ltd into a thriving, innovative business.
Economic:
Sirtrack Ltd is a successsful, innovative business.
Social:
The business provides employment in the local community.
Environmental:
Its products are assisting ecological research around the world.
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Mark Cleaver
Email |
Rowan Calder
Email 
Sales & Marketing Sirtrack Ltd Phone: (06) 877 7736 |
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