Twelve native short-tailed bats from the genetically rare Tararua Forest's Waiohine Valley population are leaving their home on Kapiti Island to take up residence at Auckland Zoo.
The Department of Conservation, Auckland Zoo, and iwi are hopeful that the bats will successfully breed to assist the recovery plan for this genetically unique group.
The Waiohine Valley population, discovered in the late 1990s, is the only known short-tailed bat population living in the southern North Island, and currently numbers just 200.
The 12 bats, which are aed between two and three years, have been part of the most ambitious conservation project ever undertaken anywhere in the world for native bats. During 2005 and 2006, this involved DOC taking pregnant females from Waiohine Valley to the National Wildlife Centre at Pukaha Mount Bruce until they had given birth and weaned their pups. The females were then returned to Waiohine Valley, and the pups taken to Kapiti Island, held in captivity for several months, and then released on the island.
However, the young bats were affected by a mystery disease while on Kapiti that caused large ear lesions, and they required surgery. The bats all survived, but the yet-to-be-identified disease has meant they can no longer echo-locate properly (a bat's sonar system for navigating and catching prey).
These bats will be moved to the zoo.
"While we are disappointed that a population didn't establish on Kapiti Island, having bats at the zoo gives us a unique opportunity to develop skills in captive husbandry, and to work with zoo staff to investigate the causes of the ear lesions," says DOC spokesperson Lynn Adams.
"It will hopefully also enable us to reintroduce this species to secure sites in the wild."
The 12 bats will be cared for by specialist native fauna keepers at the zoo's New Zealand Fauna Conservation Centre, and the zoo's veterinary team at the New Zealand Centre for Conservation Medicine.
"Housing native bats is a first for the zoo, and we're absolutely over the moon at being given this opportunity to contribute to the conservation of this amazing land mammal, and to help increase awareness of its plight," says Auckland Zoo New Zealand fauna team leader, Andrew Nelson.
While for now the bats will be housed off-display, the zoo is planning to include them in the night forest area of its New Zealand-focused development, Te Wao Nui, which is scheduled to open to visitors in early 2010.
