Tuatara return to where they belong

Scientist Raewyn Empson shows a large male tuatara in his new home at Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, in Wellington. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Eighty million years ago, you'd have been tripping over tuatara. Then, up to 1000 of the reptiles are thought to have inhabited every hectare and even now, on protected, isolated islands, they number in the tens of thousands.

But for the last 200 years, tuatara have been missing from mainland New Zealand, first because its reptilian relatives had been dying out, and then because they were killed off by predators such as rats.

That changed yesterday when 70 tuatara - the common kind, Sphenodon punctatus, - were flown by helicopter to Wellington's Karori Wildlife Sanctuary from Stephens Island in Cook Strait.

Long-time tuatara watcher and Victoria University biological sciences professor Charles Daugherty said it was "wonderful".

"It's returning them home. It's returning them to where they belong."

They are due to be released into a 1ha enclosure next week and eventually dispersed across the 250ha native forest sanctuary.

Within the central city, it is completely protected by predator fencing, part of a 500-year conservation strategy.

Apart from zoos, the sanctuary will be the only place on mainland New Zealand where tuatara can be seen. Professor Daugherty said the tuatara was the first species introduced to the sanctuary that was not a bird.