The Distribution of New Zealand Bats Before the arrival of humans to New Zealand bats would have been found almost everywhere. Humans have greatly reduced the amount of native forest and consequently the areas in which bats live.
Bats like to live in large native trees such as the beech, kauri and the totara.
Such forests are typically hundreds of years old. These old trees contain large natural cavities, which the bats use as roosts. Bats do not like the pine trees, which are now widely planted throughout New Zealand, nor do they like regenerating forest. The long-tailed bat is found throughout the North Island but in the South Island it is found in the forested areas of the Westcoast, Canterbury, Fiordland and Stewart Island.