Ok, here goes. All the reasons you should vote for the NZ lesser short-tailed bat (aka #TeamSkyHobbit) in the Bat World Cup!! #BatWC2020.

1/6 They are the ONLY remaining species in their taxonomic family. That's like humans being the only living great apes.

2/6 They are NZ's ONLY land mammals, and have evolved in the absence of mammalian predators. This means that they fill a niche more commonly filled by rodents in other ecosystems. They're capable quadrupeds, often foraging on the ground, and have a generalist diet (D. Mudge).

3/6 This makes them important pollinators and seed dispersers for a wide range of native plants - including the parasitic ground-growing woodrose, Dactylanthus, which produces massive quantities of nectar, and thus proves pretty irresistible. ( D. Mudge).

4/6 They are lek breeding. Males compete to impress females by performing songs. Males stake out a territory in a tree hollow and perform there nightly, in a breeding season that can last November - May. Starting to get a hint why they might need all that nectar! (D. Mudge)

5/6 Their songs are some of the most intense ever recorded - with song rates that rival a lot of songbirds. It is estimated that a single male can produce over 100,000 song phrases per night.

( = the spectrogram of a short tailed bat song)

6/6 They're also utterly mad, bitey, look like they've been doing crack cocaine when they have a face full of pollen, and will fight you even if you're 100x their size (they may have no sense of scale). In short, #Mystacina are the best, and you should vote for them. (D. Mudge)