Bat Sneaks Into New Zealand Bird of the Year Competition, Our Hearts

New Zealanders are up in sleeve over a bat ’s comprehension in this year’sBird of the Year contest , a competition that ostensibly exist to coronate a bird . Alas , it seems a bat has stolen the hearts of locals this time around .

Bats are not snort . Bats are fly mammal , as should be light from their furriness and deficiency of nib . But that has n’t stopped thelong - tail batof New Zealand ( fuck locally as the pekapeka - tou - roa ) from slip its path into this yr ’s contest , jeopardizing the chances of such charismatic fauna as the takahē and kiwi , not to mention thekākāpō , last year ’s succeeder , a flightless parrot that is known for being shining immature , chonky , andbad at sex . There are 76 wannabe in the 2021 competition , and the bat is the first mammal to ever be included .

To be fair to the bat , it is very cute and deserving of recognition . Long - tailed batsare thumb - sized , with wingspan as wide as a human hand , and weigh less than a tablespoon of sugar . They can fly at speeds up to 40 miles per hour and prefer to roost in very honest-to-goodness trees , but deforestation has stripped the fly mammals of much of their habitat , and many are picked off by trespassing predators such as cats , rats , possums , and stoat . The bats are critically endangered .

An illustration of the New Zealand long-tailed bat, which is critically endangered and not a bird.

An illustration of the New Zealand long-tailed bat, which is critically endangered and not a bird.Illustration:Wikimedia Commons

The at-bat is winning “ by quite a quite a little , ” according to Laura Keown , a spokesperson for Forest and Bird , the leading independent conservation organization of New Zealand and the organizer of the rivalry . Keown told theGuardianthat “ it ’s not a foregone conclusion , anything can happen . But definitely looking at the results , the bat is the frontrunner . It ’s streaking ahead . ” Some on Twitter werefavorableto the inclusion , while others were adamantine that“Bats . Are n’t . Birds . ”Still others matt-up like the decision was the start of a slippery slope .

Next up , hot dogs win by quite a bit in New Yorks sandwich of the year contest

— sonnymoon42 ( @3flat9)October 26 , 2021

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It ’s not the first time the competition has flirted with arguing . Last year , Forest and Bird report that 1,500fraudulent voteswere casting for one razz : the little - spotted kiwi fruit ( kiwi pukupuku ) . In this face , though , the squash racket ’s entry was permitted by Forest and Bird . A spokesperson told the Guardian that the creature was allowed in as it is critically endangered and needs more care .

Perhaps amazingly , bats are theonly mammalian native to New Zealand that are n’t semi- or wholly aquatic . “ Since ‘ mammal of the yr ’ was going to be a very boring challenger we kind of settle to fox the chiropteran among the pigeon and ruffle some feathers , ” Keowntold HuffPost .

It may seem unjust for the organization supervising an election to imply a sure amount of support for one candidate , specially a candidate who does n’t seem to meet the qualification criteria . But perhaps procedural objections fall matte in the face of a moral obligation to raise awareness around a critically peril species . If you ’d wish to count in , voting is unfastened through October 31 .

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