EcoQuest Education Foundation Te Rarangahau Taiao 1

Wānanga Pekapeka 5th – 6th March 2022

Tēnā koutou katoa,

Aotearoa is renowned worldwide for its endemic and charismatic birds but few people, even
domestically, know about our endemic and equally charismatic pekapeka (bats)! We have two
species in Aotearoa: pekapeka tou roa (long-tailed bats) and pekapeka tou poto (short-tailed
bats). We are fortunate enough to have pekapeka tou roa around us in Tāmaki
Makaurau/Hūnua area. As with many of our native taonga, pekapeka have suffered huge
population declines in recent decades and are now classed as ‘Nationally Critical’ by the
Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai. This means pekapeka need very effective
conservation right now to prevent their extinction, which sadly could happen in a matter of
decades if remaining populations are not managed properly.

EcoQuest Education Foundation - Te Rarangahau Taiao are located in Whakatīwai just outside
Kaiaua, overlooking the beautiful Tīkapa Moana. Since 2017 we have been conducting student
led research on a population of pekapeka located in the Hūnua Ranges which are on our
doorstep. This work involves carrying out acoustic surveys to monitor pekapeka activity levels
all over the ranges, work that is crucial for identifying regularly used flyways and important
foraging areas. This has enabled us to advance the project to catch individual bats and fit radio-
transmitters to them, allowing us to track them back to their roost trees. Finding and protecting
bat roosts from introduced predator pests such as rats, possums, stoats and cats is one of the
most important aspects of pekapeka conservation in Aotearoa. The identification of individual
roosts and roosting areas helps to guide our local conservation partners Auckland Council - Te

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Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau on where to concentrate pest management operations to help

protect pekapeka. EcoQuest have also just started a new project alongside Auckland Council
and Te Ara Hīkoi (Predator Free Franklin). Through this we will work with landowners to seek
new locations of pekapeka activity and to identify important habitat areas across the Franklin
Region. We hope that this work will increase our understanding on the effects of urbanisation
and habitat fragmentation on remaining pekapeka populations in the area.

EcoQuest care deeply about the conservation of pekapeka in our rohe and we want to
empower more people to do the same! We are keen to teach rangatahi the essential
knowledge and skills to work with pekapeka so that the future of this taonga can be secured.
We are delighted to announce that we recently received some funding from Auckland Council
to make this happen! We intend to hold a Wānanga Pekapeka at our local EcoQuest campus
from Saturday 5th – 6th March 2022. The agenda at this hui will cover the biology of pekapeka
(e.g., life history, feeding, habitat) as well as familiarising attendees with pekapeka survey
methods and the skills, equipment and analysis techniques that go with this, including an
evening visit to a pekapeka hotspot and an overnight stay at the EcoQuest campus at
Whakatīwai. We also want this hui to be a wānanga in terms of sharing knowledge and devising
a framework of mātauranga around pekapeka. We believe that this will help to identify ways in
which the knowledge and skills learned through this wānanga can be honed and applied in ways
which are relevant and useful for everyone.

Already we have had strong interest from our local iwi Ngāti Pāoa and Ngāti Whanaunga, as
well as Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki in being part of this initiative. We are thus extending the invitation to
iwi across the region to attend this hui so that we can collaborate to achieve better learning
and conservation outcomes for pekapeka. From this, we aim to develop a pekapeka education
and skills training programme that will give rangatahi the opportunity to be involved with and
contribute to pekapeka mātauranga and conservation in Aotearoa. As this initiative has been
funded, we can offer a koha to help cover travel and time costs of participants.

Please note – in the interests of both our staff and attendee wellbeing you will require a vaccine
passport to attend, as well as adhering to the usual Covid protection measures.

Hope to see you there! Please send an email to david@ecoquest.co.nz to confirm your
attendance. Please note that places are limited to 20 people, and we will require a minimum of
5 participants to run the event.

Ngā mihi

David Clarke, Lecturer, EcoQuest Education Foundation, Te Rarangahau Taiao

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Programme Timetable

Venue: EcoQuest Education Foundation, 1204 East Coast Road,

Whakatīwai, RD3 Pokeno, 2473

Saturday 5th March 2022

Time Activity

10:00 am Arrival and Whakawhanaungatanga

10:45 am Agenda for Wānanga
11:00 am Introduction to bats (pekapeka) of Aotearoa:
Presentation covering biology, foraging +
habitat, survey techniques, summary of
EcoQuest research on bats to date.
12:00 pm Lunch
1:00 – 3:00 pm Workshop on bat survey equipment:
Objectives are to

(i) familiarise participants with the

main types of bioacoustic bat
detectors for conducting bat
surveys
(ii) Learn how to process and
interpret spectrograms of bat
echolocation data
(iii) Introduction to advanced bat
survey methods and equipment –
harp traps and radio-tracking.
3:00 – 3:15 pm Tea break

3:15 – 4:45 pm Radio-tracking exercise, Waharau Regional

Park: Hands-on field exercise to learn the
basics of radio-tracking – an important skill to
enable locating bat roost trees.
6:00 pm Dinner

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7:30 pm Evening bat walk in the Hūnua Ranges: We

will depart EcoQuest and head to Piggott’s
campground in the Hūnua Ranges. Here we
will do a walk after sunset and listen for
pekapeka activity using handheld bioacoustic
monitors.
10:00 pm Depart Hūnua Ranges to return to EcoQuest

Sunday 6th March 2022

Time Activity

7:30 – 9:00 am Breakfast

9:00 – 11:00 am Wānanga discussion: An open group
discussion to explore mātauranga Māori
around pekapeka.
11:00 am Meeting close

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