The long-tailed bat has caused a huge upset by being named New Zealand Bird of the Year.
The Long-tailed Bat beat all other birds with the closest being a huge 3000 votes behind.
Second place went to the kākāpō, titipounamu (Rifleman) got third, the kea was fourth and the toroa was fifth.
The black robin/kakaruia, kororā, ruru, whio, and Rockhopper penguin were the rest of the birds in the top 10.
Bats in New Zealand are threatened by pests like possums, stoats, rats, and cats. The Bird of the Year was an opportunity to let the general public know about them.
Bats are New Zealand’s only native land mammals, and they are classed as nationally critical, and they face a lot of the same threats that our native birds do.
7 Responses
I like bat a lot but I don’t think it should be called bird of the year because bat ant really birds
its so cute
its not really a bird to be honest… oh well its too late lol
But it’s a bat not a bird
wow
Maybe they should create a bat of the year event, they should probably have separated the bats from the birds.
thats a lot of votes 4 the bat