The Pekapeka's body size is only slightly bigger than a mouse, so they are very small compared to other bats. Photo / File
The Pekapeka's body size is only slightly bigger than a mouse, so they are very small compared to other bats. Photo / File
The naming of a bat as New Zealand's Bird of the Year came as a great surprise to many including its fans who are ramping up efforts to save the tiny, critically threatened mammal.
The news of the win this week comes after the lockdown surprise of the native long-tailed bat (pekapeka-tou-roa) being discovered living in Morrinsville.
Now the Waikato town is rallying volunteers to make the area predator-free to give pekapeka and other native wildlife a fighting chance.
A community initiative Predator Free Morrinsville is being launched on Saturday with a working bee; all welcome - just bring your own hammer.
Go Eco and the Piako Catchment Forum are behind the move which was planned before The Bird of Year win and follows the discovery by Norm Mason of the forum during lockdown last year of a population of the pekapeka living in Morrinsville.
"I wasn't planning on looking for bats in Morrinsville. 20 years ago bats were recorded in Waharoa [between Morrinsville and Matamata] so I wanted to look there. I had all the recording equipment ready and then lockdown came, so I had to stay home and decided to put up the equipment around where I live," Mason says.
When he recorded the first bat, he was really excited. "Because there was no official record of bats in Morrinsville before. Now we have biodiversity in our own backyard to look after."
Although he finds bats very fascinating, the inclusion of the pekapeka in the bird of the year competition was a bit of a surprise for Mason and even more so that the tiny bat actually won the title by so many votes over the kakapo. "I didn't expect it to win at all."
Department of Conservation's Dr Kerry Borkin thinks it is a win for both the pekapeka and conservation in general.
The long tailed bat Pekapeka has soft, brown fur and only weighs ten gram. Photo / Damian Christie, DoC
"It was a bit of left-of-field entry into the competition but anything that showcases our amazing native fauna and conservation is pretty fantastic," she says. The news of a bat becoming New Zealand's bird of the year spread as far as Germany where the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported the unusual winner.
Pekapeka have soft brown fur and weigh only 10 grams. They are already well known to many people in Hamilton where Mangaiti Gully Restoration Trust coordinator Rex Bushell says: "These are really interesting little fellows. Their body size is only slightly bigger than a mouse, so they are very small compared to other bats."
Bats play an important role in the ecosystem of New Zealand's ancient forests, but they can also be found in city centres like Hamilton, eating flies and other pests in the dusk.
Most Kiwis haven't seen a bat in the wild before, also due to the animal's status as a critically threatened species. Pekapeka are vulnerable to predators like cats and stoats as well as loss of mature trees and competition for a diminishing number of roosting sites with other animals and birds.
This is where the new Predator Free Morrinsville initiative comes in. The long-term goal is to have one in five Morrinsville properties controlling predators like rats, stoats and possums. Based on results in other predator-free communities, this will not only help protect the bats but also bring more native birds like tūī into Morrinsville.
The long-tailed bat was 3000 votes ahead of its closest competitor, the kakapo, in Bird of the Year. Photo / John Stone
At the launch on Saturday, Go Eco and Piako Catchment Forum will first host an information session providing information about the bat population and other native species in Morrinsville.
A working bee will then build rat trap tunnels for backyards and community trapping programmes in public areas including Holmwood Park Reserve and the Morrinsville River Walk. The aim is to build 100 traps for the community on Saturday.
Mason says he thinks there will be a good turnout. "When we first discovered bats in Morrinsville, there was a lot of community interest, but there is so much we don't know about [the town's bat population] yet. We do know they don't relocate well and once they are gone, they are gone. So we want to look after them to keep them here."
Hamilton is also one of the few cities in New Zealand that supports a resident bat population and works on supporting the flying mammals.
Tim Newton of Green Footprint Tree Care installing a bat home which requires serious tree climbing skills. Photo / Sabine Pahl
As bats are sensitive to artificial light from urban development, Hamilton City Council also included buffer zones between buildings and significant bat habitats in the proposed Peacocke Structure Plan to ensure lighting doesn't interfere with the bats' natural behaviour.
HCC's Growth Programmes Manager Karen Saunders says: "We've recognised the pekapeka-tou-roa as a toanga (treasure) of our city that we need to protect now and safeguard for future generations as Hamilton grows."
The infrastructure investment in Peacocke has meant increased protections for the bats including pest control to reduce bat predation, restoration and protection of their natural habitat and the introduction of 80 artificial bat roosts, or bat boxes.
Bats have specific requirements for where they roost, requiring old-aged trees with cavities in them. Council monitoring shows that the bats are making use of the introduced bat boxes.
The Predator Free Morrinsville launch on Saturday starts at 9.30am at the Rotary Club Hall in Morrinsville Canada Street and runs until 12pm. Due to Covid Alert Level 2, the launch has a maximum of 50 participants and attendees asked to bring their own hammer.
You can register to take part in the launch event here.
