The secret lives of bats tracked by recovery project

Monday, 22 January 2018

A long-tailed bat fitted with a wing band to help track of the population.

A groundbreaking bid to discover more about Marlborough's bat population will get underway next year.

The Bat Recovery Project run by Forest & Bird has been awarded $80,000 in grants from both the Department of Conservation (DOC) and the Rata Foundation.

The boost in funds means more vital research can get underway to find out vital details about the bats to help safeguard their survival.

Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve, halfway between Blenheim and Nelson, is home to one of the last remaining populations of long-tailed bats in Marlborough.

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Bat Recovery Project manager Gillian Dennis with a short-tailed bat recovered from a harp trap.

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Bat Recovery Project manager Gillian Dennis, who started with Forest & Bird last year, says funds have so far been focused on predator control.

'There are an unknown quantity of bats at Pelorus. The money will be used for more in-depth monitoring; where they roost, survival rates and breeding patterns.

'They are just fascinating, with a fascinating lifestyle and the challenge of working with them is appealing,' she says.

Weighing around 10 grams, the long-tailed bats were first sighted in the Pelorus area in the mid 1800s.

Dennis says the population has steadily declined with rats, stoats and cats all playing a part in their demise. About 30 dedicated volunteers regularly check a network of predator traps throughout a 200-hectare site at the reserve.

The bat recovery project began in 2011 following the discovery of a significant population of critically endangered long-tailed bats at Pelorus during Forest and Bird's surveys across the top of the South Island.

Bats are believed to shelter in hollows in mature trees during the daytime or under loose bark. The size and composition of the population at Pelorus is not yet known Dennis says.

'We just don't really know and that is one of the key questions we will try and answer.

'Surveys across the top of the south have failed to detect bats in many locations nut an absence of detection doesn't mean that they are not there; Forest and Bird will continue to search for other populations.

However it doesn't give us the whole story. Bats are very long-lived animals, so if predators are killing the younger bats or breeding females we may only be detecting a dwindling number of old adults.

'Once we catch them, they'll be given a band with a unique ID number and we'll check whether they are male or female and how old they are.

'The location of roosts will help us to target sites for expanding our predator control network,' says Dennis.

Forest & Bird's work is also supported by the Stout Trust, Ngāti Kuia and The NZ Lottery Grants Board.