Invercargill Tuatarium » Invercargill Tuatarium

Invercargill Tuatarium
09-07-2008

As there is now a forum specially for the Invercargill Tuatarium but no threads in it, I thought I'd start it off with this one. I don't really know a lot about the place, although I've visited a few times, so most of the info on here is from the internet. It turned out to be surprisingly hard to come up with much of anything about the place as most sites just repeat the same few lines in different ways. There may be some minor mistakes in the following text.

The Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill was originally part of the Invercargill Athenaeum (the library), and according to records from the 1880s even back then there was a tuatara kept on the premises. The first large dedicated display for tuatara was built as an outdoor exhibit in 1974. Redevelopment of the museum in 1990 also included the construction of a brand new tuatarium, viewable from the inside (entered through the museum) and from the gardens outside (through bullet-proof glass to deter theft).

There are four public terrariums, a large one at either end and two smaller ones in the middle (one for baby tuatara and one for Henry). See the photo gallery for pictures of the tuatarium interior Invercargill Tuatarium » Photo Gallery.

Henry is the oldest resident of the tuatarium, with an estimated age between 120 and 130 years. He was caught in the wild on Stephens Island in Cook Strait and brought to the museum in 1971. The sign on his enclosure says he was hatched "around the end of the 19th century"; other sources say "around 1880". In reality he could be any age from about 70 onwards. Apparently he does not like other tuatara and is therefore housed alone.

Most of the tuatara at the Museum are common tuatara (and all from Stephens Island). Breeding began here in 1985 and over a hundred young have been hatched and reared. There are usually about 50+ tuatara here at any one time; most hatchlings are sent to Peacock Springs in Christchurch for growing-on before being released to the wild on Cook Strait islands. The 2002 Captive Management Plan records the Museum's common tuatara population as 4.3.53. It is surprising how many internet sources state that the Museum is the ONLY facility to breed tuatara -- in fact, it is simply the most successful (by a long shot); many other places in NZ have also bred tuatara, although results are often rather hit and miss.

There are also seven Brothers Island tuatara at the Museum (laparascoped in 2001 as 2.5). These form the only captive potential-breeding group in NZ and one of only two such groups in the world (the other being at San Diego). They were hatched at Victoria University from wild-collected eggs and are now about 15 years old. They haven't bred yet. Whichever of the two places breeds them first will have achieved a world's first captive-breeding.

In 1991 two baby Brothers Island tuatara were stolen from the Museum by notorious wildlife-smuggler Freddie Angel. Originally it was feared that three baby Brothers tuatara and a breeding common tuatara female had been taken but the female and one of the babies were later found in searches of the enclosures. Angel was arrested in January 1992 on charges of trying to post an adult tuatara poached from Stephens Island to the USA (this tuatara is now at Orana Park), and charges were then also laid regarding the Invercargill Museum break-in. At this time he had been to jail on eight previous occasions, including for the instance where he had stolen kea from Christchurch's North Brighton Zoo (the birds were intercepted as they were leaving the country in luggage). His jail term in this case (for the tuatara) was a paltry one year and eleven months. Angel was well-known for some amusingly-ineffectual smuggling attempts, but of course nobody knows how much he got away with over the years. Astonishingly he was regularly granted permits to legally export non-protected wildlife including introduced species such as possums and wallabies to Asia for "pets", as well as the four species of native lizard that were then not protected (common skink, copper skink, common gecko and forest gecko). In an almost farcical manner the lizard exports were inspected by officials the day before shipment and then not again, making it easy to add in whatever reptiles Angel wanted to send out. Angel is now dead, killed in a car crash in the 1990s (I can't remember the exact year).

26-01-2009

You don't often see news items about the Invercargill tuatarium, but here's one from today. Note that the age of 111 years given is pure guess-work. Henry was caught in the wild in 1971 (or 1970 according to this article) so his age is unknown.
Henry, at 111, becomes a first-time dad - New Zealand, world, sport, business & entertainment news on Stuff.co.nz

26-01-2009

I'm confused, so how do they know it's really 111 years old? What made them guess that age?

26-01-2009

The fact that he uses a walking frame.



Hix

27-01-2009

maybe they found his birth certificate: "Henry the tuatara born today, 1898, to proud parents Melissa and George Sphenodon". Of course the REAL question is, is his birth day counted from the day the egg was laid or the day he hatched out of it?

27-01-2009

That would add a few years to his life.