Review 7 – NZ bats – Pekapeka
This review will be swiftly covering all of New Zealand’s terrestrial native mammals in one fell swoop, as we have the unique benefit of having only two in the whole country. Introducing the Pekapeka, otherwise known as NZ bats.
As mentioned above, we have two species of Pekapeka. There’s the Short-tailed bat, and the Long-tailed bat. I don’t know what the obsession in Aotearoa is over naming animals short and long, as eels here get the same treatment with their fins, but I digress. The term Short-tailed bat used to include the now presumed extinct Greater Short-tailed bat, however I’m sure the “lesser” species contested their title after the aforementioned “greater” bats made their exit. Their flattering title was more indicative of their larger size, than their relative ability to avoid getting wiped out by rats.
By now we all know how little the bats of Hollywood legend represent anything other than vampire motifs, and you’ll be happy to know we don’t have any flying bloodsuckers in our native forests. Correction – any flying blood-sucking vertebrates – sandflies will still treat you like a mobile buffet. None of our native bats would have inspired Bram Stroker, as they indulge themselves on a diet of nectar, pollen, fruit, and insects. It’s a silent win for them, as although they can’t scare humans with vampire tendencies – they do scare the daylights (!) out of any poor invertebrate that dares be nocturnal. Overseas research, so not in our ecosystem but comparable, has shown insectivorous bats (like ours) can eat 1000 Mosquitoes a night.
While our long-tailed bat swoops at it’s prey from the skies like a… well… a bat…our short-tailed species decided, like so many of our native species do, to make the moist forest leaf-litter its hunting ground instead. This, of course, makes it vulnerable to introduced predators which explains the great short-tailed bat’s recent departure from the scene.
Although they’ve had a rough experience in recent times, there is hope for the survival of such unique little mammals. In fact, modern work in predator control has seen very positive results – with the Pureora population seeing a 10% annual increase in short-tailed bat numbers.
It cannot be overstated how important pest control is in the survival of the Pekapeka. A rather sobering fact – that helps highlight just how intense the shift in predation has been – is that while a Morepork would struggle with more than one bat at a time, rats can eradicate an entire roost in one night. It’s a pretty big argument for nationwide pest control efforts: just imagine seeing a bat colony roosting under a cabbage tree or a short-tailed bat traversing the mossy forest floor. With the Mahi, it’s possible.
8/10 – Number of bats I’d need to get rid of my spider “roommates”
