DoC goes for bats on the Whanganui

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 523, 15 February 1994, Page 4

DoC goes for bats on the Whanganui

Threatened long-tailed nati ve bats have been found in the Whanganui Ri ver area by the Department of Conservation. Whanganui field centre officer Norm Marsh and two conservation volunteers have just spent a week on the river recording bat

sounds with electronic bat detection equipment. The equipment records the bats' echo navigation signals which can't be picked up by the human ear. They record as a series of beeps. "We travelled the river at night from about 9.30pm till 2am in a rubber raft. Finding campsites in the dark was a bit of a feat," said Mr Marsh. The group travelled the river between Whakahoro and Pipiriki covering one section at a time. "We picked up quite a few bat sounds at various locations, scattered throughout the river trench. We saw a few as well in the evening but mostly we just heard them on the recording equipment." The machine was tuned into the frequency for longtailed bats which are about the size of a mouse. Mr Marsh was involved in the discovery of a colony of the bats, which eat in-

sects, in a tawa tree in the Waitotara area in October. Information on the latest find on the river is being sent to Wellington to add to a growing data base on the little known species. "The long-term objecti ve now that we've located the bats is to go back to the general area and find the roost sites to monitor the population." "That way we'll be able to see if numbers are increasing or decreasing and what impact other creatures such as possums, rats or cats are having on the bats." Mr Marsh says co-opera-tion from other river users during the survey was great. "We would arrive at a campsite in the dark at about 2am and although we tried not to make too much noise setting up our tent it must have been a bit disturbing to other campers. However no-onecomplained. People were more interested in what we were doing."