The long-tailed bat had swooped in to clinch the title in an online poll. Contest organisers had included the bat, one of the country's
The long-tailed bat had swooped in to clinch the title in an online poll.
Contest organisers had included the bat, one of the country’s few land-based native mammals, to raise its profile as a critically endangered species.
But the victory has annoyed some, with one commenter saying the country had gone “batty”.
Outraged bird-lovers cried fowl on Twitter, calling it a “total farce”, a “stolen election”, as well as more colourful and unprintable terms.
Some on social media also saw it as a much-needed public relations victory for bats, after a particularly trying two years.
Spokesperson Laura Keown said in a statement that “a vote for bats is also a vote for predator control, habitat restoration, and climate action to protect our bats and their feathered neighbours!”
The long-tailed bat, also known as the pekapeka-tou-roa and is only the size of a thumb, beat a flightless parrot to win the title.
More than 56,700 people cast their votes, with more than 7,000 for the bat and just over 4,000 for the kakapo, which won the contest last year.
In 2019, hundreds of votes were found to have come from Russia, spurring fears of voter fraud.
Organisers later determined that they were likely to have come from Russian bird-lovers, instead of hackers intent on manipulating the vote.
Fonte: BBC news
