Pestival Webinar Replay:
“Even though the New Zealand Long Tail Bat won Bird of the Year in 2021, the profile of our New Zealand native bats is, really, really low compared to our native bird species. The biggest challenge is trying to just get people to be more aware of our bats.”
New Zealand used to have three native bat species, but the Greater Short Tail Bat went extinct in the 1960s due to a huge rat plague, which is really sad. It’s a story that we don’t want to repeat for our other native bat species, so we really need to look after them as much as possible.
Learn from New Zealand’s own Batman, Ben Paris, about our two remaining bat species, their habits and habitats, and what we can do to protect them and help them to thrive.
This video first aired as part of the Franklin Online Pestival, in November 2022.
Ben Paris – Senior Conservation Advisor (South), Natural Environment Delivery, Environmental Services
Ben Paris graduated from Waikato University with a science degree and worked for the Waikato Regional Council on bringing tūī back to suburban Hamilton via the highly successful Hamilton Halo project. Hamilton was also where Ben was introduced to New Zealand’s native pekapeka, for which he developed a passion, co-leading the formation of Project Echo. While at Auckland Council he helped kick start a bat awareness movement through research and science communication. He also worked with Auckland community groups to develop a pest free “wildlife corridor” across the North Shore, encouraging communities to provide safe havens for birdlife arriving from the Hauraki Gulf islands.. After working at Auckland Zoo and writing for the Tiaki Tāmaki Makaurau – Conservation Auckland website portal, Ben is back as a Senior Conservation Advisor at Auckland Council working with pest free communities at a landscape scale across South Auckland.