CHIROPTERA--NEW ZEALAND BATS.
How many people--especially young people--in New Zealand have seen
native bats? Two species occur in the country, and one of these at one
time was fairly common. Now they are very rarely seen in the settled
districts. It is some years since I have seen one in the Dunedin
Town Belt, a locality in which they formerly were common. In Hutton
and Drummond’s “Animals of New Zealand” it is said that “a peculiar
interest is attached to these creatures. One has become very rare;
the other is on the brink of extinction, and may, indeed, even now
have ceased to exist. They are popularly called the ‘short-tailed’ and
the ‘long-tailed.’ As if to make up in one respect for deficiency in
another, short-tail has long ears, and long-tail has short ones.” I
do not think this estimate of their occurrence is a correct one. Bats
still occur in forest regions, and in the wide and quite unsettled
areas lying between the open country of Otago and Southland and the
West Coast Sounds it is quite probable that the short-tailed species
is still to be met with. The only people likely to come across bats
are the few explorers who traverse these almost unknown regions, and
bushfellers and sawmill hands, for these animals hide themselves from
all ordinary observers. Bats hide away in holes in trees and in rock
caves during the day, and even when flying at night are not easily
caught, unless one stretches out a white sheet, when they sometimes
flap right into it.
The short-tailed bat (_Mystacops tuberculatus_) seems to have first
been met with by Dr. Knox, of Auckland, who got one and presented it to
the British Museum in July, 1843. In 1871 he got another, I think, in
the Hutt Valley. In the same year, when H.M.S. “Clio” was in Milford
Sound, several of these bats were caught when the sails were being hung
out to dry. When Hutton described this species in 1871 there were only
two specimens in the Colonial Museum--one from the Hutt Valley and the
other from the “Clio.”
The feet of bats are peculiar. The toes are all about the same length,
and the first (or great) toe is nearly in a line with the others;
all are furnished with sharp claws. They are not fitted to walk on
the ground, but to grasp the branches of trees, and Hutton says this
species “has adaptations which led to the conclusion that it hunts
for its insect prey not only in the air, but also on the branches
and leaves of trees, among which its peculiarities of structure must
enable it to creep and crawl with ease and security.” The length of
this little bat is about 2·8 in., and the spread of its wings about 12
in. Knox says of it, “A well-defined line ran from the wrist-joint,
sweeping round to the elbow, knee, and setting on of the tail, dividing
the wing-shaped pectoral extremity, so that on the internal segment
hair was developed, whilst on the external segment the integumentary
expansion was perfectly smooth, so that when the forearm and hand was
completely drawn in or retracted, the tail being free, the animal
resembled in every respect, even in that of colour and short silky
hair, a little mouse; and the small, short thumb, with its peculiar
nail, would rest on the ground.”
The long-tailed, short-eared bat (_Chalinolobus morio_) is found all
over New Zealand. Hutton says of it, “Up to 1885 it was common about
Christchurch, but it is thought that the destruction of the old wooden
bridge over the Avon, where numbers used to gather together, has driven
it away. It measures about 2 in. in total length, being slightly
smaller than the other species, and is about the same size as the
‘flitter-mouse,’ the commonest species in England.” Knox gives rather
larger dimensions for this bat. One he measured was 3½ in. long
and had a spread of wing of 10·8 in. Buller, writing of these animals
in 1892, says that both species, according to the Maoris, live in
communities, inhabiting the cavernous interior of some dead and hollow
tree, congregating there in hundreds and thousands, and clinging to the
sides in successive tiers, packed so closely as to occupy the entire
surface.
Mr. Caldwell, a District Surveyor, gave Buller the following
information about this bat: “I left Carterton, together with two
companions,” he said, “for a walk into the hills at the right-hand
side of the Waiohine, going by way of the Belvedere Road. We got
fairly up the hills by about 10 a.m., and climbed a high range
covered with black-birch. Getting warm we sat down on the moss to
rest. Then my attention was attracted by a smell of a kind I had not
noticed in the bush before, and one that reminded me of a flying-fox
camp in Queensland. I followed the smell for some distance to a
large birch-tree, with an opening about 4 ft. from the ground. I had
evidently traced the smell to its source, for at the opening it was
fairly stifling. I could see nothing, so I lighted a bunch of dry
leaves, and thrust it through the opening into the tree. As I did
this a bat flew out in my face, then another and another. The smoke
increased, and the bats streamed out in hundreds. I had no means of
computing the number; but one of my men, having a small switch in his
hand, kept striking at the stream, the result of which I afterwards
counted. There were exactly a hundred bats killed. For one killed at
least ten must have passed and flown away. Large numbers dropped down
in clusters through the blazing opening. I had no idea there were so
many bats in the Wairarapa, and would not have believed it had I not
seen them. I have never seen in New Zealand another such collection.”
My first comment on reading this account was disgust and indignation at
the wanton slaughter of these rare and inoffensive animals. Buller adds
that “most unfortunately the fire took possession of the tree, which
was in a very dry and combustible state, and the whole colony perished
in the conflagration.” It is no wonder these animals have become rare!
Cheeseman records numerous other instances of the great congregations
of these bats in bush-covered districts. Many hundreds were found in a
hollow tree in the Wangapeka Valley, Nelson, in 1881. Later on a colony
of several hundreds was found in the Thames; and in 1893 a bushfeller
in the Kaipara district found hundreds of them in a tree which he cut
down. He brought twenty-two of them alive in a box to Mr. Cheeseman,
who, being anxious to see how they would behave in a room with closed
doors and windows, liberated them. “The experiment justified to some
extent the belief that bats enjoy an acute sense of touch, probably
unequalled throughout the animal kingdom. They took to their wings at
once, and commenced to circle round the room with that quick, soft, and
noiseless flight which they are enabled to pursue by means of their
velvety wings. The presence of full daylight did not affect them in
the slightest degree, and they made no mistake in estimating their
distance from an object. They circled round the room, flying in and
out of the corners, skimming just below the ceiling, and hovering over
the furniture, but never coming in contact with anything. Nor did they
dash themselves against the window-panes, as birds would have done in
similar circumstances, but they treated the glass in precisely the
same manner as the walls of the room. After satisfying themselves that
there was no mode of escape from the room, they began to settle down
on the tops of the architraves of the doors and windows, hanging, head
downwards, by the claws of their forewings. Ultimately they collected
in clusters of four or five, cuddling quite close to one another, and
they were then easily transferred to their cage.”