Pekapeka tou-roa (long-tailed bats) are about half the size of an adult's palm. Photo / supplied
People in the small town of Owhango, south of Taumarunui, got all excited about bats after detectors found intense bat activity in their reserve.
Bat detectors in Ohinetonga Scenic Reserve recorded the activity in June,verifying the reports of new residents who said they had seen the tiny and critically endangered flying mammals.
A "spot the bat" evening is now planned for summer on a nearby farm where bats were detected.
"The awareness now is fantastic. It could drive more people trapping in their own backyards. The interest is just amazing," Owhango Alive chairman Mark Fredericks said.
Owhango Alive is a group of people who have been trapping predators in the reserve, village and surrounding farmland since 2011.
New residents to the village reported seeing bats, while others who had lived there for years hadn't seen any. The Department of Conservation (DoC) was called in.
In June, Tongariro biodiversity ranger Luke Easton set four bat detectors in the 148ha Ohinetonga reserve, which borders Tongariro Forest. Bats are in semi-hibernation in winter, so it was a happy surprise when the recorders captured a lot of activity and "feeding buzz", despite nights of heavy rain and wind.
Predator control by Owhango Alive would have been protecting those bats, Easton said.
The recorders also picked up the squeaking of rats, a major predator of bats. Others are stoats, weasels and cats.
Owhango Alive has 281 traps that are checked weekly by 12 people. Since 2011 they have caught 4400 rats, 400 hedgehogs and 340 mustelids (stoats and weasels).
Just this year they caught nearly 70 cats in live capture traps. The cats were a huge danger to bats, Fredericks said.
The trapping had also made for a "fantastic" increase in the number of whio on the Whakapapa River, he said.
Bats are nocturnal, and usually start hunting about half an hour before dark. They are very fast and agile and hard to spot.
The long-tailed bat (pekapeka tou-roa) and lesser short-tailed bat (pekapeka tou-poto) are New Zealand's only native mammals, and both are in danger of extinction.
Predator control is one of the most important ways to sustain them. They also need old forest with large trees to roost in, and are thus vulnerable to habitat loss.
They returned to the same trees year after year, sometimes roosting in mobs of 300 and moving to a different tree every night, Tongariro community ranger Sarah Cull-Luketina said. Long-tailed bats feed on small insects like mosquitoes and sandflies, caught on the wing.
Their numbers could be increased with targeted pest control which will stop the bats going extinct in the medium to long term, DoC principal ecosystems science adviser Colin O'Donnell said.