[00:00.56]Seeing an opportunity,
[00:02.46]the bats pounced.
[00:07.03]After all,
[00:08.36]why waste energy hawking for insects in the sky,
[00:11.19]when there is such a feast on the forest floor?
[00:14.38]New Zealand's night-time creepy-crawlies are at the mercy of these bats.
[00:27.78]Some try to put up a fight
[00:32.78]but they're no match for this army of predators.
[00:39.98]These bats have special sheaths that protect their wings,
[00:45.16]all the better to burrow through the leaves.
[00:53.18]So even worms aren't safe.
[01:06.51]The very first bat evolved from a mouse-like mammal many millions of years ago.
[01:13.26]Here on New Zealand,
[01:14.86]it seems evolution has gone into reverse.
[01:18.96]And if New Zealand's bats have turned to mice,
[01:24.21]what on earth has happened to the birds?
[01:27.74]In these forests lives a bird that
[01:32.45]is about as un-bird-like as it is possible for a bird to be.
[01:38.38]It's nocturnal,
[01:43.32]though it sometimes wakes up before sunset.
[01:48.56]It has whiskers so it can feel its way in the dark.