Four baby tuatara found at Invercargill demolition site
Four baby tuatara found at Invercargill demolition site
The chances of discovering baby tuatara in an abandoned enclosure this week are being described as similar to "finding a needle in a haystack".
The four animals ranged in size from 11 to 12cm and weighed between five and nine grams, meaning they were likely less than a year old.
Council parks and recreation manager Caroline Rain said the enclosure had been thoroughly searched prior to the tuatara being moved in February 2023, meaning the babies had likely been in egg-form at the time.
"We did everything you'd expect us to have done to ensure that there wasn't anything there," she said. "They were genuinely just missed, they were not seen."
If you're like me and had no idea about this animal, here's a good video.
Apparently the video is geo-blocked, I can't watch it from New Zealand. Lucky I already know what a tuatara is!
This is random but I read this post and then had a dream about baby Tuataras that same night. I barely ever dream so that was fun.
A good dream, I hope?
Now I'm wondering what a nightmare about baby tuatara might be like.
Haha a bizarre dream for sure but they were very cute and may have had butterfly wings. I have no idea what was going on in my brain.
If it's not clear, they were found when demolishing an old tuatara enclosure.
Also I found this interesting:
According to Pukaha National Wildlife Centre, there are an estimated 100,000 tuatara left in the world - a species endemic to New Zealand.
About half are found on Stephens Island in the Cook Strait.
50,000 on one island in the Marlborough Sounds?
For a moment there I was thinking maybe people in Invercargill always have to check potential demo sites for tuatara before they proceed!
Me reading headline "omg there are a lot more tuatara down that way than I realized"
I had the same first impression! But unfortunately if you check the distribution map on the side of the wikipedia page, they basically only live on islands.
There's also this snippet:
During routine maintenance work at Zealandia in late 2008, a tuatara nest was uncovered,[21] with a hatchling found the following autumn.[22] This is thought to be the first case of tuatara successfully breeding in the wild on New Zealand's North Island in over 200 years.[21]
Since Zealandia is a fenced reserve (that has a specific tuatara enclosure within that reserve), it seems they are not very common on the mainland at all.