Endangered bats move closer to Nelson
The “nationally critical” long-tailed bat appears to creeping closer to Nelson, amid conservation efforts in the region.
Department of Conservation (DOC) staff confirmed the threatened species was frequenting an area near Cable Bay – about 15km from the CBD – at the site of a community riverside restoration project.
The long-tailed bat was detected in the 14 hectare area along the Wakapuaka River, where the project has run for the last five years, aimed at reconnecting native habitats in the region.
DOC technical advisor, Moira Pryde said finding evidence of the creature there was significant, with the mammals having disappeared from Nelson a long time ago due to factors including habitat-loss, noise and lighting.
She was approached by workers involved in the Wakapuaka Mouri project, in between Cable Bay Adventure Park and Māori Pa Rd, after recent reported sightings of the bats there.
Pryde helped install five DOC recorders at the site in February, and four had since detected the long-tailed bat, she said.
While people had reported seeing the animal in the Nelson region in recent years, a survey last year failed to find any evidence of that, Pryde said
The fact the creatures had now been detected (through their unique echo-location “signature”) over the two weeks the detectors were out, indicated that more bats were flying in the vicinity, Pryde said.
It was her theory that the bats were just visiting, probably from Pelorus about 10km “over the hill”, where Forest and Bird has been carrying out a bat recovery programme for the last seven years.
While bats were “really faithful” to their home area, they did spread to other areas, travelling up to 20 kms in a night.
The project site was helping provide the habitat bats liked to live in, with bats preferring to roost in native trees because they had better thermal qualities, Pryde said.
But bats were very vulnerable to predation, and rats had also been detected on the recorders at the Wakapuka restoration site, she said.
“This is really a wake up call to say we need [more] predator control as well.”
Wakapuka Mouri project lead, Sophia Bisdee from Tasman Environmental Trust (TET), said while much of the region’s lowland podocarp forest had been lost over time, the project was helping rebuild the crucial habitat.
Confirming that long-tailed bats were coming to the area was “validating”, she said.
“It’s good that they’re exploring, and they have a safe place to do so.
“It means we’re doing the right thing, we’re trapping predators, and we’re creating habitat, so we were stoked.”
75,000 native plants had been planted under the project, funded by the Ministry for the Environment through the outgoing Jobs for Nature programme, set up by the previous government.
It expanded on restoration work carried out by Forest and Bird project at Paremata Flats – the land between the coast and the project site – and aimed to create an ecological corridor linking native vegetation to the Significant Natural Area (SNA) in the Whangamoa Ranges, Bisdee said.
This year marked the project’s final planting season – with the project a collaborative effort involving TET, Nelson City Council, the Ministry for the Environment, Ngāti Tama, and local landowners the Usshers (Cable Bay Adventure Park) and the Kidson family who owned the land next to the Adventure Park.
More volunteers were sought to help continue the restoration work. People interested could contact Sophia at sophiabisdee@tet.org.nz.
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
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