#new zealand long tailed bat

[transgender-chiroptera]

pekapeka tou-roa, via

[loveisinthebat]

This is the winner of a Bird Contest

[k1w1fru1t]

Absolutely hilarious that the Kākāpō was barred from the Bird of the Year contest because it won twice and people weren't paying enough attention to the other endangered birds that would also benefit from the extra awareness raised by the competition.

[ruthytwoshakes]

team furries twoooo. And scalies. And whatever birds are.

please share and donate to this family of four, the youngest being only 2 1/2 years old. They need funds to safely cross to Egypt. If you donate something, send me a message with proof and I’ll draw you something nice as a thank you :)

Species and concept art under cut!

Sniper: so for some reason I was under the impression that Crocs were native to new zealand. They are not. Uh. Well. yup. 👍 it fits his personality. snappy n dangerous but real easy to get around if you just zig-zag. Why the long fa

Spy: Grey Fox. I was gonna go with a wolf because of his fursona but fox fits better wahhhh. Also means that scout is half fox! I’ll show that in more detail one day. Probably.

Medic: just like his Doves! The tail coat is actual his real tail. Featherrrrrs. Why are his nasty claws out? I don’t know he’s kinda weird like that.

Demo: TIGER!!!!! He’s always kinda reminded me of Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes :) why did I draw him so cute. Somebody stop me before I draw them all adorable ough.

Engineer: the bulllllerrrrrrrrr. Sorry. He’s a bull, with a nose ring. Epic. Hooves for hands, gunslinger would look like a hoof too, gotta design that later.

Heavy: big badass brown bear. Love him. Instead of bullet he has honey sticks. It costs four hundred thousand dollars to harvest honey… for 12 seconds.

Pyro: fucking dragon. hell yeah. In pyroland they see themselves as a unicorn. Baller.

Scout: Bunny scout truther over here. You can thank @/teamfurtress for that. Please check them out, commissions are open! In my version he’s a hare but that is significantly less fun to say lol. Jackrabbit kinda guy.

Soldier: regular ole dog. ouppy to da max. He’s the most dog of the alol time and I’m tired of pretending he’s not. THE STRAPS ON HIS HELEMT ARE HIS EARS. HIS BIG TEETH AND OPEN MOUTHED SMILE. THE WAY HE MOVES. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!???!??????! That’s a grown man with dick n balls what am I doing

Some designs for the side characters that I couldn’t be arsed to finish. Saxton is kangaroo because of corse he is. Admin is a bat because she never leaves her room, Pauling is mouse because is cute, Zhanna is bear like big brother, Merasmus is praying mantis, and Gray Mann + Olivia Mann are vultures! She’s so fluffy oh my god

Concept time. I fell in love with wrinkly floppy dog sniper. Adorable. Unfortunately I already had a dog so he had to go </3 kangaroo sniper was also axed. rip girl. Lots of diff designs for admin! Curtesy of @stangeranfanficion (thank u for the ideass) eagle soldier because it’s funny. Also zebra Pauling! I really like this one. If I make a horse au she’s going to be a zebra.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Hi,

Apparently the winner of the 2021 New Zealand Bird of the year competition is the long tailed bat.

You read that right a BAT won a BIRD competition against 75 bird species.

Is that mammal bias enough for ya?

oh. my. gd.

[todaysbat]

Bat of the Year 2023 Round One

Gould’s Wattled Bat (Chalinolobus gouldii) is a bat found in most of Australia named for English naturalist John Gould. Wattled bats like this species are named for fleshy lobes found at the corners of their mouths.

New Zealand Long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus tuberculatus), or Pekapeka-tou-roa as they are known in Maori, are one of two still living species of bat in New Zealand. They are another species of wattled bat like Gould's. In 2021, they were proclaimed New Zealand's Bird of the Year, despite not being a bird. Their echolocation calls include frequencies that can be heard by some people.

[battle-of-the-birds]

I love all the New Zealand birds in the polls so I really need you to know that New Zealand has a Bird of the Year contest every year. The public votes. People and organizsations get really into it campaigning heavily for their chosen bird In 2021 a bat won (New Zealand long-tailed bat), much to public outrage, but also I think that would make a very funny bonus poll

Yeah I actually follow the newsletter for that! I always forget to vote tho… kinda cool that a bat won, I know that in Hawaii the only indigenous mammal is a bat. I don’t think that’s the same for NZ but I thought I’d share my cool bat fact. Another cool bat fact, the Hawaiian Hoary Bat is cool in the way that it doesn’t roost in colonies like normal bats. They roost solitarily in trees, which makes counting their population really hard. They COULD be doing really well, or they COULD be doing really poorly, but it’s really hard to tell.

[smol-blue-bird]

hi hey I need to know 1) that you've seen the current shenanigans over NZ's bird of the century poll; and 2) your thoughts

The NZ bird polls are my favorite things in the world tysm for giving me the chance to yell about them

ANYWAY

Re: the current shenanigans (i.e. John Oliver interfering in the election by starting a global campaign for the pūteketeke/Australasian crested grebe)—I get why people are upset, because it kind of takes the fun out of the competition by drastically tipping the odds in favor of this one specific bird. Like, it'd be one thing if all of the birds had marketing campaigns and celebrity endorsements, but it's just this one grebe, so now the pūteketeke is almost guaranteed to win because it's the only one with that kind of publicity. That kind of sucks, because it's not much of a contest anymore.

At the same time, though, all of this nonsense has drastically increased the number of voters from just over 50,000 to hundreds of thousands. The count had to be delayed because there were so many voters! The whole point of the competition was to draw attention to endangered indigenous birds, so if the drama is increasing awareness, it's succeeding. And the pūteketeke is seriously endangered, so if any bird "deserves" a celebrity endorsement, it's that little weirdo.

All that being said, my personal favorite bird in the competition is the karure/kakaruria/black robin. Because a.) it was on the literal edge of extinction for years, and by the 1980s, there were only 5 surviving birds in the species, BUT IT CAME BACK, AND THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF THEM NOW!!! Which is amazing, they 100% deserve to be the bird of the century. And b.) just look at them, they're goth little orbs and they own my heart

Look at these perfect spheres. Void orbs. I would die for them

I also love the titipounamu/rifleman, but they're not endangered, and I'd rather a more seriously threatened species win. But I mean. Come on. Look at them, they're perfect

Also, frankly, I'm happy with any bird winning at this point as long as it's an actual bird and not a bat. I'm still mad about the 2021 election. IT'S ABOUT BIRDS. THE NEW ZEALAND LONG-TAILED BAT SHOULD NOT HAVE COUNTED AND I'LL DIE ON THAT HILL.

[harpagornis]

Miocene: Saint Bathans Fauna

Zealanditherium worthyi by Dylan Bajda.

The non-marine fossil reccord of New Zealand is scarce. This is because through most of the Cenozoic New Zealand was underwater. However, some land must have remained, as when the fossil reccord does pick up again, we find terrestrial animals and plants that must have been vicariants.

The Miocene age Bannockburn Formation holds the so called Saint Bathans Fauna, a diversity of species dating to 19-16 million years BCE. In our timeline, this formation had leiopelmatid frogs, fish, turtles, crocodiles and an abundance of birds and bats, including representatives of iconic New Zealand groups like moas, kiwis and mystacines. The overall environment was much warmer than today’s New Zealand, the formation representing a tropical swamp environment with species not seen today in New Zealand like casuarinas.

However, notable was the presence of a non-therian mammal, of uncertain affinities. In our timeline, this was essentially the last member of an ancient lineage that clung on to the island remnants, becoming extinct as New Zealand became colder and its biota changed later in the Pliocene.

In this timeline, however, this mammal was far more sucessful, and its group, the Zealanditheres, were the dominant megafauna in the Saint Bathans fauna.

Around 45 species are known, ranging in size from small shrew like forms to heavy one ton herbivores, taking the ecological niche of the moa in our timeline. A leopard sized apex predator, Reparo whiro, dominated as the top carnivore of this assemblage. On the trees, five forms similar to opossums took the canopies, while on the ground long tailed herbivores demonstrated rabbit-like saltitation. In the waters, the otter-like Waitoreke anciens hunted for fish, alongside otter-like dagontheriid multituberculates.

Zealanditheres were of course not alone as mammals. Various flying lineages were found here, including the six-meter wingspan acamapichtliid Parirau ataroa, competing as the apex predator with Reparo and the eagle like colliform bird Tane manaakitia. The youngest deposits show tools belonging to Mazda sraosha, suggesting that these sophonts were present here in large numbers, presumably even making settlements and taking advantage of the swamps for aquaculture. Some megafaunal bones have evidence of being chopped by tools, suggetsing they hunted the local fauna. What impact this had is unclear since this is at the tail end of the formation.

Birds were still greatly represented. While the moa didn’t come to be, gracile ratites of the genus Paramoa came to resemble forms like rheas and ostriches, while kiwis are still represented by the possibly still volant Proaptery. Lithornithids and palaelodids replace the shorebirds, herons and waterfowl seen in our timeline while coliiforms are the dominant arboreal birds with no signs of raptors, passerines or parrots, showing how drastically the environmental alterations caused by the presence of multituberculates have impacted the biosphere.

On the herpetofauna, sphenodontians are more diverse and there are no lizards in sight, though otherwise it is nearly identical to our own’s.

The Saint Bathans Fauna in our world was a glimpse to a lost world, one that died as New Zealand became colder. Here, however, it remains to be seen if this unique fauna will endure, or if the climate will become colder at all.

[transgender-chiroptera]

New Zealand long-tailed bat/pekapeka-tou-roa, via nzbct

[dungeonofthedragon]

Homebrew Species: Pekapeka

Recently the amazing Kelly Whyte released Lineages of the Long White Cloud. This amazing supplement for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons introduces magic items, monsters, and even playable species inspired by the wildlife of Aotearoa New Zealand.

As the creator encourages homebrew, I tried my hand at some of my own! Meet the pekapeka: fun furry bat folk based on our native short-tailed bats.

[ms-hells-bells]

the kakapo has been excluded from this year's nz bird of the year competition due to it winning in 2019 and 2020 to allow 'less charismatic birds to have a chance'. fair enough, i love many other birds.

also, last year's winner, the long tailed bat has retired from the comp after the one year it was included and then won, and this is the image Forest and Bird posted to announce it lol

voting starts on the 17th

here are the contestants for this year

[animal71154]

okokok i wanna make a list of interesting animals that i like and some of which i have trouble remembering sometimes. i will edit this over time. ok. i thought we would be able to do readmores on mobile by now but apparently not. ok (i also always forget the word reconcile so that can be here too)

...

MARSUPIALS common brushtail possum, quoll, tasmanian devil, thylacine, cuscus (common spotted cuscus, sulawesi bear cuscus, silky cuscus), opossum (white-eared opossum, four-eyed opossum, yapok/water opossum), tree kangaroo, glider (greater glider, yellow-bellied glider)

RODENTS rat, mouse, nutria, Gambian pouched rat, capybara, Brazilian porcupine, jerboa (long-eared jerboa), chinchilla, vizcacha

MUSTELIDS ferret, weasel, stoat, marten (yellow-throated marten), skunk (spotted skunk), mink, greater hog badger

PRIMATES tarsier, aye aye, ring tailed lemur, japanese macaque, gelada, marmoset (pygmy marmoset), capuchin, spider monkey (red-faced spider monkey), howler monkey, white-faced saki

VIVERRIDS binturong, civet (owston's palm civet, African civet, banded palm civet), linsang, genet

PROCYONIDS kinkajou, coati, ringtail/cacomistle, raccoon

HOGS wild boar (really been enjoying these lately) , red river hog, pygmy hog

FELINES margay, rusty-spotted cat, black-footed cat, asiatic golden cat, bornean bay cat, little spotted cat/oncilla, jaguarundi, sandcat, lynx, bobcat, caracal, serval, fishing cat, pallas' cat

ANTEATERS tamandua, giant anteater, silky anteater, pangolin

LAPINES rabbit (flemish giant rabbit, sumatran striped rabbit, Netherland dwarf broken chocolate colour (someone said i would be this if i was a bunny)), hare

OTHER MAMMALS fossa, mongoose (yellow mongoose, common slender mongoose), elephant shrew (black and rufous elephant shrew), treeshrew, colugo, spotted hyena, antelope (oryx, roan antelope), honduran white bat

FISH eel (New Zealand longfin eel, moray eel, gulper eel), black ghost knife fish

ARACHNIDS jumping spider, house spider, daddy long legs, huntsman spider, tarantula, camel spider, tailless whip scorpion, horseshoe crab

OTHER INVERTEBRATES snail (giant African snail), slug, slater/pill bug, isopod, praying mantis, bee (honeybee, bumble bee), moth, millipede, centipede, earwig, beetle, sand hopper

...

ok now im tired and im going to go to bed. i will readmore this tomorrow when im on the computer maybe. goodnight

[lilyflxwers]

Somewhat cool animal fact coming your way: In New Zealand the only non-introduced land mammals are bats.

In 2021 NZ/Aotearoa added the Long-tailed bat to their annual Bird of the Year competition to raise awareness for the species and it WON! Even though it is obviously not a bird.

New Zealand's long-tailed bats are about the size of a human thumb and weigh less than a tablespoon of sugar.

dude this is cool as fuck thank you SO MUCH and they’re pretty cute! (though their little feet are a bit creepy but ill let them off)

[4shfur]

hiiiiiiiiiii what's your top 5 bats. bats of all time

OKAY YAY TOP FIVE JAMIE FAV BATS TIME. in no particular order

1. egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) CUTE TINY BABIES. all they think about is b cute and eat fruit 🥭 they help mango farmers by only eating mangos that ripen early or that are missed by farmers. By doing this they prevent the fruits from molding and attracting fruit flies :))) OOH and also they are in the only genus of flying foxes with echolocation. they echolocate by clicking their tongue or with sounds made by their wings!!!

2. VAMPIRE BATS. this is three seperate species/genera but AGHHH I LOVE THEM. Hairy legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecudata) is my fav bcs of his big eyes 🥺 <— him

anyways THEY R SO COOL. they form lifelong bonds w/ each other and share food by regurgitating blood ☺️☺️☺️ they also adopt orphans. Their saliva is 20x more effective then any man-made anticlotting agents and is being studied to make medicines for people with strokes and such :D ALSO THEYRE THE ONLY BATS THAT CAN WALK!!! theyre fast enough to run on a treadmill!!!! Im so proud of them!!!!they dont have enamel on their front fangs, which keeps them sharp all the time and they r the only mammal that lives entirely off blood. its theorized they evolved from insectivorous bats that ate bugs off the wounds off of other animals :)

3. PALLID BATS (PALLIDUS ANTROZOUS) ever been stung by a scorpion? i havent, but i bet it would hurt like shit. luckily, pallid bats are IMMUNE to scorpion and centipede stings. that is so cool. they are also super good pollinators!!! most nectar bats have really long snouts 2 hold their long tongues but pallid bat doesnt! so they just shove their faces in the flower and get pollen. everywhere. also… they have….. TWINS!!! TWO BABY BATS

4. brazilian free tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) these guys are everything. fastest bats, fastest mammals, fastest flying animal powered by their own flight (almost 100 mph!!!!) they smell like corn tortillas because they emit an aromatic chemical compound called 2-aminoacetophenone. 

They have the biggest urban colony (1.5 million bats under congress avenue bridge) and biggest colony IN THE WORLD (20 million bats in bracken cave), both located in texas. the floor of bracken cave is covered in 70 feet of guano. the dermestid beetles in the cave ingest the guano and produce even more ammonia fumes that will make you pass out if you dont wear proper protection. people used to mine guano in the caves with nothing but a bandana.

its a nursery colony, so around 10 million females come during the summer and the size doubles to 20 million when the pups are born. 500 babies or 300 adults fit in 1 square foot.sometimes the babies fall and the dermestid beetles eat them to a skeleton within hours. The bats emerge from the cave in three seperate emergences in a spiral called a "bat-nado" which helps them gain momentum. Their wings are long and thin and their tail is too, it helps them with fast, direct, flight.

5. spectral bat (Vampyrum spectrum) super epic. The largest bat in Yangochiropteria. They use both echolocation and sight to hunt and they can pounce like cats >:3€ they eat rodents, birds, insects, and OTHER BATS HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHQHQHA they also form cute little families 🥰🥰🥰 oh also goth from silverwing is a spectral bat!!! honestly it was such a missed opprotunity not to make him look more like a spectral bat in the show?????? it wouldve been way cooler and menacing then his actual design lol

honorable mentions: wrinkle faced bat (Centurio senex) heart nosed bat (Cardioderma cor) little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) large flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus), new zealand lesser short tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata) 

[todaysbat]

Bat of the Year 2023 Round Two

Common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) is the bat species that everyone thinks of when you say "vampire bat". This species is one of the most social species of bat, and have been observed not only grooming each other but also sharing food. They even form lasting friendships.

New Zealand Long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus tuberculatus), or Pekapeka-tou-roa as they are known in Maori, are one of two still living species of bat in New Zealand. In 2021, they were proclaimed New Zealand's Bird of the Year, despite not being a bird. Their echolocation calls include frequencies that can be heard by some people.