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A baby tuatara born from an egg laid on Matiu/Somes Island in Wellington Harbour has proved the success of a 9-year-old conservation programme.
The new tuatara came from an egg found on Somes, and is the first known offspring of 54 Brothers Island tuatara transferred to the haven nine years ago.
Another birth may be coming - the egg was one of two taken from a buried nest on the island in May to be incubated at Victoria University's School of Biological Sciences.
The Department of Conservation and tuatara experts from the university had long suspected the island's "robust and healthy" tuatara were breeding, and they now have proof.
The reptiles bury their tiny eggs in the ground, leaving no trace of where they are hidden.
But the chance discovery of eggs beside a track on the island led to last week's hatching.
"The island ranger found two eggs which appeared to have been scratched from a burrow by another tuatara," DoC biodiversity programme manager Peter Simpson said.
"We would have been surprised if they hadn't been breeding, but their buried nests are usually well concealed."
A probe of the burrow revealed six more eggs, two of which appeared to be viable. They were monitored by Victoria University staff, and a fully formed, miniature tuatara emerged from one of the eggs. Its sex has yet to be determined.
"We've been waiting for this for nine years. It's fantastic," said researcher Sue Keall.
" We're all very excited."
The tuatara will be returned as soon as possible to Somes Island.
"We'll look after it until it gets more robust," Ms Keall said, "but in nature parents desert the eggs in the nest as soon as they are laid."
- NZPA
