ping does not resolve fully qualified host properly

Hello.

I have the following in my /etc/resolv.conf:

<snip>
# Generated by NetworkManager
domain example.local
search example.local
nameserver 192.168.7.1
nameserver 192.168.7.254
</snip>

Both nameservers are functioning properly. I get the following when running host:

$ host mail
mail.example.local has address 192.168.7.12

$ host mail.example.local
mail.example.local has address 192.168.7.12

But when I run ping, I get the following:

$ ping -c 1 mail
PING mail.example.local (192.168.7.12) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from mail.example.local (192.168.7.12): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.526 ms

--- mail.example.local ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.526/0.526/0.526/0.000 ms

$ ping -c 1 mail.example.local
ping: unknown host mail.example.local

If I add the following entry in /etc/hosts:
192.168.7.12 mail.torstencalvi.local mail

I can ping the fully qualified hostname just fine.