Tiny Baby Bat Twins Being Fed at the Auckland Zoo

It’s meal time for the baby lesser short-tailed bat twins born at the Auckland Zoo in New Zealand. The twins were bred as a part of a program to help re-build this threatened endemic species.

Auckland Zoo is celebrating successfully breeding and rearing lesser short-tailed bat twins – the first time this threatened endemic New Zealand species has ever been bred and hand-reared in a zoo. The tiny short-tailed bats (pekapeka), a male and a female, born in mid-November weighing just 4 grams (weight of a 20 cent coin!), are now a healthy adult weight of around 14 grams.

Bat Feeding

Baby Bats at Auckland Zoo

Lesser Short-Tailed Bat Twins

images via Auckland Zoo

via ZooBorns

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.