yes, just what NZ needs. Another predatory invasive species, and a highly venomous one just for good measure. Brilliant.
yes, no idea, and apparently they were doing fine in the Wellington weather. I don't know the details though.
Willowbank has two green iguanas, presumably from the ones bred at Ti Point in 2015: Willowbank Wildlife Reserve
I went to the Dunedin Butterfly House at the Otago Museum on Friday and they no longer have Madagascar giant day geckos. Asked an employee about it and she doesn't know exactly where they went, probably to another facility. Sad, I remember seeing one years ago.
thanks, I've edited the list. They have had a few individuals. The last time I was there (several years ago) they had one larger individual at liberty and one baby in a tank where the tarantulas are. Prior to that I have seen at least two adults at once at liberty. Did they still have the scorpions?
Didn't have the scorpions either sadly, strange because I thought they'd be popular with visitors and thus worth keeping.
they were Rainforest Scorpions which don't come out in the open during the day, so they don't make good exhibits anyway.
There's apparently discussion within MPI circles that fire-belly newts may eventually be banned at some point in the future. There's nothing official yet and I'm hoping it doesn't happen (too common maybe) but might be informative to watch this space.
yep, that's been talked about for ages. It's probably popped up on NZ reptile/fish forums recently though (presuming that's where you got it from) because that sort of thing gets recycled regularly.
Yeah, got it from forums and Facebook. It's been talked about since 2014, and there will apparently be a pest pet register in the near future. Not sure how long these things take, if they ever do happen.
One would think it would be Boiga irregularis - the wide ranging spp that has caused all the problems when introduced to Guam.
I've been in the NZ private reptile community for a while now, and I now think that all of the Asian box turtles, leaf turtles and spiny turtles are very rare nowadays, probably not breeding anymore (only one guy has bred leaf turtles recently). When was the last time you saw any for sale, if I may ask?
I haven't seen a leaf turtle in a long time but for the other two I've seen them in the last few years. I haven't seen any for sale for ages - but they were never the sort of turtle you'd see for common sale. You'd mostly need to know who was breeding them. Only a handful of chelonian species were ever advertised freely.
I see. I guess it might be something you'd need to prove your turtle keeping skills first to be allowed to keep them.
One last thing (sorry if this is a double post) is that shingleback skinks are technically a zoo license species (according to the zoo animal list on the old EPA site, which has appears to have been lost with a "mobile-friendly" update of the site), meaning they are illegal to keep privately (Cunningham's skinks, however, are not). It might also be worth mentioning that rainbow skinks are illegal to hold in captivity as they are an Unwanted Organism.
Brooklands Zoo have acquired two Leopard tortoise Leopard Stigmochelys pardalis. The two females, Kobe and Kamba, were born at Auckland Zoo and came to Brooklands Zoo via Ti Point Reptile Park. Brooklands Zoo has new tortoises, Kamba and Kobe
I'm not sure how notable this is, but Marineland apparently once had a monitor of some sort, too? Picture is from a guide book from the 1960s.
Wow, that's neat. I had never heard of that one before. A search on Google only gives me only one result that I can find, on the following link (you need to go to the button for page 17): Hawke’s Bay Photo News January 1963 Keeping a watchful eye on the photographer this four-foot long Monitor lizard was captured in Pakowhai Road, Hastings, recently. According to authorities on wild life, the specimen is that of the Australian Monitor and could possibly have arrived in the country in a shipment of wood. The lizard, weighing about 8 pounds, has a skin with merging shades of grey, green and brown.
