Range and Foraging Areas

At Puketitiri the bats appear regularly from the same section of forest. Feeding areas are established and are not more than about 800 yards from the point at which the bats appear. Three areas serve as the main feeding grounds. These page 23are: a paddock about 120 yards from the forest edge; a dam about 220 yards from the forest edge; and a grass paddock about 350 yards from the forest edge. A stream runs along the south-western boundary of the paddocks. Feeding areas nearer the forest are more often frequented and, although some variation occurs from year to year, the sites of these areas generally have close relation to the stream and dam.

A few other evening observations record the following distances from the nearest forest: 150 yards and 350 yards, ¼, ½, and ¾ of a mile. Of fifty reports which include details of the habitat, 28 refer to the presence of water either as swamps, lakes, streams, etc., and 25 refer to the presence of forest. Of these latter, all but three indicate that the bats were observed at the forest margin or in open areas adjacent to forest. The remaining three are sightings in dense forest.