On this page: About Project Echo, Why are bats a threatened species?, Who's involved?, Long-tailed bat facts, How are bats detected?, Report a bat 'sighting', Habitat protection on your property, More information, Project partners
About Project Echo
Hamilton city is one of the only cities in New Zealand to still support a resident population of long-tailed bats.
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| Long-tailed bat. Image courtesy of Gerard Kelly. |
Long-tailed bats are capable of long distance flight. These bats may have large home ranges and regularly move between forest fragments to feed and roost. There are a few confirmed bat roosting sites in the southern part of the city, but bats are likely to be more widely distributed throughout the city than previously thought
Project Echo aims to gather information on bat distribution throughout Hamilton city. This project could lead to on-going work to protect bat roosting trees and provide predator control. You can view a map of Hamilton bat sightings here, or find out more about the project in the video clip below:
Why are bats a threatened species?
Bat populations have declined over the years due to the removal of trees (where bats roost), predation by pest mammals, and increasing competition for roost sites e.g. rats and possums.
Who’s involved?
Waikato Regional Council leads Project Echo, and is working together with Hamilton City Council, the University of Waikato and the Riverlea Environment Society Inc. (RESI) to identify and protect bat roosting sites.
Long-tailed bat facts
- are small, weighing 8-14g
- feed on flying insects e.g. moths, beetles and mosquitoes
- are a threatened species
- are endemic to New Zealand (only live in New Zealand)
- along with the lesser short-tailed bat, are New Zealand’s only native land mammals
- are threatened mainly by habitat loss, but also by predation from rats
- roost in small cavities in large, old-growth trees, including dead trees – and have more than one roost which they frequently switch between (e.g. day and night roosts)
- rest by day and breed in the cavities of old-aged trees.
How are bats detected?
Because bats rest during the day, they are often unseen by humans. Bat detectors can be used to monitor bat sounds that can’t be heard by the human ear.
Bat detectors can be borrowed by members of the public free of charge to detect bats on their properties. Freephone Environment Waikato's Biosecurity team on 0800 800 401 for more information.
Below are two audio files of the sounds of the bat detectors in action when a bat is nearby. The waveform graphs below them show what the sounds 'look like' in our equipment.
Bat detector soundclip 1 (single long-tailed bat search phase ecolocation pulse at 40Khz)
Bat detector soundclip 2 (multiple long tailed bats flying and ecolocating together)
Report a bat 'sighting'
If you think there may be bats living on your property or in a nearby park you can borrow a bat detector and check it out for yourself. Contact us for more information.
If you have seen a long-tailed bat in Hamilton (or detected one with a bat detector) we’d love to hear from you. Complete a bat sighting form so we can keep track of bat distribution across the city.
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| Crown Copyright: Department of ConservationTe Papa Atawhai (August 1973), Photographer: J. L. Kendrick |
Habitat protection on your property
You can help by protecting standing dead trees and old-age trees with cavities, which are the natural habitat of long-tailed bats. Dead trees and old trees with hollows and cavities are still valuable for wildlife!
You could also consider planting large trees for future bat generations.
Bats move to a new roost tree regularly so are not always present at a site. If you think bats might be present on your property, or you’re about to remove a large or dead tree contact Waikato Regional Council.
More information
Download the Project Echo factsheet.
Visit the Riverlea Environment Society Inc (RESI) web page.
Call our freephone 0800 800 401.
Project partners
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