Story at a glance
- The long-tailed bat has won New Zealand’s contentious “Bird of the Year” election.
- This year’s competition received more votes than ever before, with more than 56,000 votes cast.
- The long-tailed bat, or pekapeka-tou-roa, is “so rare, we don’t know how many are left,” according to the mammal’s Bird of the Year campaign manager.
One of New Zealand’s only land mammals has flown away with the country’s highly sought after “Bird of the Year” title, the first of its kind to do so.
The pekapeka-tou-roa, or long-tailed bat, became the first native land mammal to be entered into the competition’s running earlier this month, a surprise entry by conservation organization Forest and Bird, which has organized the competitive online election each year for the last 16 years.
The pekapeka, one of the country’s just two native land mammals, which are both bats, is as small as a thumb and its wingspan is the size of a hand, according to Forest and Bird. It weighs roughly 10 grams, the same as a New Zealand $2 coin.
Voter turnout this year was the highest ever, with 56,733 votes cast. The long-tailed bat won with 7,031 votes, while the kakapo, a flightless parrot that won last year’s competition, came in second place with 4,072 votes.
Voting for this year’s competition was open from Oct. 18 to Oct. 31.
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Despite its recent victory, the pekapeka-tou-roa isn’t winning many battles elsewhere, and it’s conservation status is “in serious trouble,” according to the Bird of the Year site.
These creatures are “so rare, we don’t know how many are left,” pekapeka-tou-roa “campaign manager” and University of Auckland scientist Peter Wills said in a statement. “These kind night flyers get a bad rap from their cousins overseas. A rap which COVID-19 has made worse. A rap they do not deserve.”
A Forest and Bird spokesperson told the Guardian that allowing bats to enter this year’s competition wasn’t part of any public relations campaign to save their reputation amid theories that the animals may be responsible for the novel coronavirus.
“It wasn’t part of the calculation,” she said. “Our native bats are completely innocent in that regard. They’re adorable and special and not responsible for diseases.”
Forest and Bird runs the yearly competition to help “raise awareness for our native wildlife, their habitats, and the threats they face,” according to its website. “Tragically, many species are in danger of becoming extinct, so they need all the recognition they can get.”
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