New Zealand's 'Bird of the year' competition was flooded with votes for the shag.
Bizarre on Female First
The animal received more than 300 ''dubious'' votes leading to the bird - which is a species of cormorant - to be given the coveted title.
The seabird all traced to a computer in Australia, all in one evening, which organisers dubbed as ''potentially someone's idea of a joke''.
The conservation group said:''Last night, we had 310 dubious votes for the shag from an I.P. address in Australia.''
Forest & Bird New Zealand spokeswoman Caitlin Carew said they would make sure there would be no more suspicious voting.
She said: ''Honestly, there are better ways to show your love for our native birds. And we're pretty confident nothing will get past our experts, so there's not much point trying.''