The electronic egg and chick timers had been developed by DoC and the Havelock North company Wildtech.
They accurately read how long a kiwi had been incubating an egg, so workers knew exactly when to pick them up for safe hatching in incubators at facilities like Rotorua's Kiwi Encounter at Rainbow Springs.
Mr Roxburgh said the software had been further developed to also indicate when chicks were hatched in the wild, enabling them to be held until they were old enough to repel attacks from predators such as stoats and ferrets.
The chicks were taken to kiwi creches where they could grow to a mature size in a predator-free environment before being released back into their home territory. The chick timers had recently proven successful in trials on the Coromandel Peninsula.
"They tell us precisely when the egg has hatched. This means we hassle the birds less, and reduce the risk of the male bird abandoning the nest if he knows it's been disturbed."
Mr Roxburgh said it was not just a time saver and morale booster, but reduced the risks to staff from working in rugged terrain at night.
Alastair Bramley, a former outdoor education instructor and a director of Wildtech, became passionate about the plight of the North Island brown kiwi after joining DoC staff on monitoring trips into the Kaweka Ranges five years ago.
Brown kiwi populations are declining by 4 to 5 per cent each year, unless predator or breeding management is being done, in which case their numbers are stable or increasing.
Mr Bramley said male kiwi had been fitted with transmitters, for some years.
But previous tracking techniques were time consuming and relied on educated guesses.
"Workers would go into the bush every two weeks and monitor the birds at close range to determine when a male kiwi was beginning to sit on the nest, in order to work out the optimum time to pick up eggs."
The new transmitters could be monitored from as far away as 5km.
The Environment, Conservation and Outdoor Education Trust had re-introduced 86 kiwi into the Kawekas.
BIRD'S EYE VIEW
* New sensors halve the labour input of monitoring kiwi in the wild.
* Timers can read how long an egg has been incubated.
* They also indicate when eggs hatch.
* Without intervention mainland populations of brown kiwi declining at a rate of up to 5 per cent a year.
