The Royal Forest and Bird Conservation Society of New Zealand recently held a local annual bird competition to allow people from all over the world to vote on various types of birds. The association announced the results on Monday. New Zealand's only native mammal long-tailed bat (Pekapeka-tou-roa) ran out of the contestants to win the championship. It is one of the rarest animals and one of only two types of bats in the local area.
According to the organizers, about 58,000 people voted in this competition, breaking the total voting record in the past 17 years. Voters need to select and rank 5 options to vote. The critically endangered long-tailed bat received 7,031 votes, about 3,000 votes ahead of other birds. Long-tailed bats are born like a bumblebee, and grow up to the size of a thumb. Mice, possums, ferrets, and cats are their natural enemies, causing the number of this species to decrease by about 5% every year.
Last year's champion kakapo was squeezed to second place this year, and the third was the Titipounamu (titipounamu), who was called the messenger of God and also known as the rifleman by the Maori.