Accurate surveys and monitoring are required to guide the conservation and management of threatened species.Some fauna species are cryptic or difficult to observe because they are nocturnal, mimic other species, conceal themselves, or can be incredibly hard to survey.Emergence and activity of these species may be related to complex environmental cues including weather and atmospheric conditions.The conservation status of New Zealand's long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus tuberculatus) is Threatened-Nationally Critical.Occurrence and activity of long-tailed bats is commonly monitored with acoustic bat detectors.However, even in locations where long-tailed bats are known to be present, they may only be detected on a subset of nights meaning that detection with acoustic detectors is imperfect.We analysed long-tailed bat detection data collected in Kinleith Forest, central North Island, New Zealand in 2006 and 2007 using zero-inflated generalised linear (mixed) effect models.We found relationships between bat detection and several environmental variables.Results suggest that bat surveys would be most effective at detecting bats when undertaken one to four hours after sunset, on nights when the temperature at sunset is above 8°C, and preferably when the temperature stays in the 8 and 17°C range during the night.Higher humidity and a light breeze may also be a desirable condition for monitoring.A night that is similar to, or slightly warmer, than recent nights may be favourable.Caution should be taken extrapolating these results to elsewhere because bats in other regions may respond differently to temperatures out of necessity.High site-specific variation in bat counts at higher temperatures and humidity occurred with zero activity often recorded.Therefore, we caution against assuming bats are absent because they have not been detected by surveys undertaken during higher temperatures and humidity conditions unless surveys have been run for multiple nights in suitable conditions.

Consideration of the value provided by ecosystem services is becoming increasingly integrated into decision-making processes including, for instance, both the New Zealand Government's recently adopted Living Standards Framework and the proposed Genuine Progress Indicator. However, to encourage wider uptake of the concept, there is a need to value and assess the provision of ecosystem services at scales relevant to local landowners and land managers in New Zealand. The current study was initiated by Pamu Landcorp Farming and addresses this issue by assessing the economic value provided by ecosystem services across 126 of the Pamu Landcorp farm units. These comprise 190 388 hectares of land. Properties include 'productive' operational units (e.g. pastoral, horticultural, and exotic forestry land) and 'non-productive' areas (e.g. indigenous scrub, forest, and wetlands, including land retired from production), both categories of which provide an array of important ecosystem services which have not been systematically valued to date. Individual Pamu Landcorp land parcels on each farm were assigned a broader ecosystem classification based on the framework developed by Patterson and Cole (2013). Ecosystems were scaled to reflect current spatial extent using the New Zealand Land Cover Database V4.1 (2015), and ecosystem service values adjusted to net present value and divided by area to provide results in 2019 NZD $ hectare(-1) year(-1). Findings reveal that while Pamu Landcorp's 'non-productive' land comprises only 16.2% of total area, the net value of ecosystem services provided per hectare per year are 29.2% higher than productive land ($1388 and $1961 for 'productive' and 'non-productive' land, respectively). Additionally, while wetlands comprise only 0.8% of total land area, under this analysis they provide an estimated 8% of net total economic value, reflective of the higher values attributed to this ecosystem ($14 208 ha(-1) yr(-1)). The valuation framework developed in the current study has the potential for wider uptake by landowners, land managers, iwi, the New Zealand farming industry, and regional and district councils, and helps to inform decision-making when considering the costs and benefits of activities which affect the provision of ecosystem services.