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Project Noah Nature School
Sphenodon punctatus
The tuatara has been protected by law since 1895, the second species, S. guntheri, was not recognised until 1989. Tuatara, like many of New Zealand's native animals, are threatened by habitat loss and introduced predators, such as the Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans). They were extinct on the mainland, with the remaining populations confined to 32 offshore islands, until the first mainland release into the heavily fenced and monitored Karori Sanctuary in 2005. During routine maintenance work at Karori Sanctuary in late 2008, a tuatara nest was uncovered, with a hatchling found the following autumn. This is thought to be the first case of tuatara successfully breeding on the New Zealand mainland in over 200 years, outside of captive rearing facilities. (wiki)
Spotted on Mar 10, 2010
Submitted on Jan 20, 2013
5 Comments
There's about 60.000-100.000 tuataras in total. Zoos, wildlife reserves and university schools, reproduce them, and then they release them in the wild, wich means they are tranferred in small islands, where there are well established populations of tuataras. It's difficult to go there, so a tourist can only go to the zoos and see captive animals instead.
Anyway, I'd still love to see one, even in captivity. : )
Really?? I imagined them crawling all over New Zealand. (It's probably like the ads for Australia where you see kangaroos hopping down every beach, it just doesn't happen - well, it's never happened to me!) : (
Dear @ShannaB, I saw several tuatara, but they were captive animals, in Wildlife parks and Zoos... I would prefer to see them in the wild, but that's not possible...There's not so many of them left...
How much would I love to see one of these!!!