New Zealand greater short-tailed bat

The Great New Zealand bat ( Mystacina robusta) is an extinct species of bat in the family of New Zealand bats. In scientific first description in 1962, it was still regarded as a subspecies of the Little New Zealand bat ( Mystacina tuberculata ); In 1985 she was awarded the status of an independent species ( Hill & Daniel, 1985) due to the morphological differences between the two taxa.

The species is subfossil and fossil known from the North Island and the South Island, where it was widely used at the time of the colonization of New Zealand by Māori. In the 20th century it was before only to the south of the South Island Stewart islands Iceland, Big South Cape and Solomon, where she was last seen in 1965 and probably eradicated by 1967 through the enactment of introduced rats. The Great New Zealand bat was larger than the closely related, still existing Small New Zealand bat. Other distinguishing features were the shorter and wider nostrils, the shorter wing and the powerful palate. The length ( including the tail ) was 90 mm ​​, the forearm length from 46.6 to 48.3 millimeters, the tibial length from 19.0 to 19.7 mm and the ears length from 18.8 to 19.1 millimeters. The body weight was 25 to 35 grams.

New Zealand bats have strong legs with which they sent and can crawl nimbly over the ground. The Great New Zealand bat flew slowly and never got it more than two or three feet above the ground. They fed primarily on insects, which they started at the bottom, but also from the Dark Sturmtaucherns chicks ( Puffinus griseus ). As a place to sleep, it used the burrows of shearwaters. The mating season was April-May