the only surviving native land mammal of NZ's forests

Size
Length: 5–7 cm, Weight: 8–12 g
Lifespan
10–15 years
Diet
Insectivorous. Feeds on small moths, flies, beetles, and other flying insects. Catches prey in flight using echolocation. Roosts in tree hollows and caves, often in large colonies.
Habitat
Forest edges, scrub, and increasingly the urban outskirts. Edge-dwellers of the New Zealand night, patrolling the transition zones where the deep bush meets the open paddock or the suburban garden.
Range
Found throughout the North and South Islands in forest edges, scrub, and increasingly the urban outskirts. Most common in lowland forests of the North Island and northern South Island. Populations have declined dramatically due to predation and habitat loss.
Endemism
Endemic
Main Threats
Predation by rats and stoats is the primary threat. Also threatened by habitat loss from forest clearance and the removal of old-growth roost trees. Classified as Nationally Critical, with populations crashing during beech mast years when rat and stoat numbers explode.
Population
Their reliance on old-growth home trees and vulnerability to mammalian predators have pushed them to the brink. Populations crash dramatically during beech mast years when rat and stoat numbers explode, making intensive predator control vital for survival.
Conservation Status
Nationally Critical
A high-velocity aerial specialist that operates at a scale and speed that makes it nearly invisible to the casual observer. Weighing in at a mere eight to twelve grams, roughly the weight of a two-dollar coin, it is a masterpiece of mammalian aeronautics. Unlike the short-tailed bat, which prefers to forage on the forest floor, the Peka-peka-tou-roa is a hawker. It hunts entirely on the wing, utilising its exceptional manoeuvrability to snatch moths, midges, and beetles mid-air at speeds of up to sixty kilometres an hour. It is a creature of the forest edge, using the corridors provided by rivers, tracks, and tree lines as its personal hunting lanes. To see a long-tailed bat in flight is to see a silhouette that moves with a jagged, unpredictable energy that defies the smooth gliding patterns of most small birds. Physically, the Peka-peka-tou-roa is distinguished by its namesake long tail, which is fully enclosed within a flight membrane that it uses as a rudder and a catcher's mitt for snagging insects. It has short, rounded ears and a chocolate-brown fur coat that is soft, dense, and perfectly suited for the damp New Zealand night. Their social life is incredibly fluid. They utilise social roosts where hundreds of bats congregate to share warmth and information, as well as smaller solitary roosts for individual rest. They are remarkably picky about their real estate, preferring the hollows of ancient, standing dead trees known as cavity trees, which provide the specific thermal properties they need to survive the southern winters. A single colony may use a network of over a hundred different trees, moving between them almost every night to stay one step ahead of predators and parasites. Despite its adaptability, the long-tailed bat is currently in a state of nationally critical decline. Their biggest threat is the predator plague that follows beech mast years. Rats and stoats can climb directly into their roosting holes and decimate entire colonies in a single night. Furthermore, their preference for old, decaying trees puts them at odds with modern land development and safety felling in parks and urban fringes. Because they are so small and their calls are ultrasonic, far above the frequency of human hearing, entire populations can vanish from a district without anyone realising they were ever there. It was only recently, through the use of specialised bat detectors that translate their clicks into audible sound, that we discovered they are still clinging to existence in places as urban as South Auckland and the edges of Hamilton. Conservation for the Peka-peka-tou-roa is now a race against time and habitat loss. Intensive trapping around known roosting sites is the only thing keeping many populations viable, and the protection of ugly, decaying old trees is vital to their survival. In 2021, the long-tailed bat famously won New Zealand's Bird of the Year competition, a controversial but brilliant PR move that highlighted the fact that our only native land mammals are just as much a part of our heritage as any kiwi or kea. They are the silent, furry ghosts of the New Zealand night, flickering through the trees at sixty kilometres an hour, hoping we notice them before the light fades for good. They are the last of their kind, still hunting the edges, still holding on.