Tuatara

Three tuatara live in our walkthrough aviary.

They originate from Takapourewa, Stephens Island, in the Marlborough Sound and were entrusted to our care by Ngāti Koata.
The kaitiaki relationship between Ngāti Koata and tuatara who whakapapa to Takapourewa is reciprocal.
Takapourewa has the largest tuatara population in the world. The decision to translocate tuatara is not easy as Ngāti Koata understands that any offspring from these translocations can never return to their ipukarea, ancestral land.
‘Ngāti Koata are pleased that our taonga are at Central Energy Trust Wildbase Recovery Centre to be shared and enjoyed with all.’

I ōu wāhi katoa, kei reira hoki ahau
Wherever you are, I am also

If you visit in winter, the tuatara will be hibernating.

Resident Tuatara

Big Boy

Our resident male tuatara, who is as handsome and big as his name suggests, is known as Big boy and he can often be seen sunbathing on his favourite rock or sneaking out from one of our females burrows in the warmer months.

Big boy hatched at Auckland Zoo in May 1985 making him our oldest resident. Due to his calm nature Big boy has had many homes over the years before making his way to us in 2018.

Big boy and his lady companions were gifted to our centre by their guardians Ngāti Koata after being housed together at Isaacs Conservation and Wildlife Trust in Christchurch.

During the cooler winter months Big boy will occasionally come out of his burrow if the temperature is warm enough but will spend most of the cooler days inside the insulated tunnels and burrow.

Toa

Toa is the most elusive of our female tuatara and is very rarely seen far from the entrance to her log burrow next to the waterfall.

Toa hatched at the Southland Museum in April 1997 and moved to Orana park in Christchurch back in 2002. Toa then headed to Isaacs Conservation and Wildlife Trust to join the other members of our resident tuatara group.

Toa is often seen with a slight yellow or golden colour after completing her shed and can be easily confused for another of our female tuatara at a distance.

Toa was the first of our resident tuatara to be placed into our walkthrough aviary where she quickly made herself home under the log next to the waterfall.

Dazza

Dazza is one of our female tuatara that is often seen sitting on her rock on the far side of the tuatara half of our walkthrough aviary as she observes the visitors and the other resident birds.

Dazza hatched at the Southland Museum in April 1997 along with Toa. Both were moved to Orana Park before heading to Isaacs Conservation and Wildlife Trust to meet up with Big boy and Beads (our third female tuatara).

In the early days of identification for tuatara and other reptiles the toes of young tuatara were removed in a pattern known a “toe clipping”. All our tuatara have their own unique microchips and the method of toe clipping is no longer used for identification in tuatara.

Dazza was gravid when she arrived in 2018 and may be the potential mother of one or both of our baby tuatara.

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Our patients

Our resident animals

Past patients

Tuatara

Resident Tuatara