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Peka Peka

The Peka Peka, or Pekapeka-tou-poto, or rather the Mystacina tuberculata, AKA the Lesser Short Tailed Bat of New Zealand is part of a remarkable group of animals that includes dolphins, penguins, and snakes.  These animals all evolved complex adaptations (land-living, flight, or legs) and then, in a call that seemed against their own self-interest, they abandoned their adaptions.

The Peka Peka is a ground crawling bat.  The ancestors of the Peka Peka bat must have been able, not only to fly, but fly well because they got to New Zealand, and they had to fly there I assume.  Then a particularly irreverent individual said whatever to flight, I’m going to crawl around on the ground.  I imagine this individual’s father shaking his head in disappointment, and his mother telling neighbors that he was resting on the ground in preparation for a particularly big flight.  But flightlessness worked out for the individual and his descendants, and they’ve been hopping around ever since.

I’d also like to note that the Peka Peka is part of a larger class of animals that was named for its least remarkable trait.  In English it was dubbed The Lesser Short Tailed Bat of New Zealand, and thus it is referred to here by its much cuter Maori name, the Peka Peka.  This puts the Peka Peka in the same class as the Barrel Eye fish which has a transparent head.