Tuatara’s breeding programme halted
The nationally significant tuatara breeding programme at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery has been halted this year.
The programme has been paused while a memorandum of understanding with Nga¯ ti Koata and local iwi is being developed, which means tuatara eggs are not being incubated this year.
Southland Museum & Art Gallery Trust Board chairwoman Toni Biddle said the decision was not related to the fact the museum closed in April amid concerns the building was an earthquake risk or staffing.
‘‘As Southland Museum’s breeding programme has been so successful, many of the Southland-bred tuatara have been transferred to zoos throughout New Zealand.
‘‘They have experienced massive historical decline but now stabilised as small populations in offshore islands,’’ Biddle said. It was the first time the tuatara eggs were not being recovered as there was now sufficient numbers of Stephens Island (Takapourewa) tuatara through New Zealand zoos.
At a SMAG trust board meeting earlier this month, Southland Museum and Art Gallery manager Paul Horner said the tuatara in the museum’s enclosure were laying eggs and nesting.
‘‘They have to be euthanised according to our current code of practice,’’ Horner told the meeting.
Following the meeting, questions were put to the board about why it was euthanising tuatara.
The board replied that it was not doing that, but rather eggs being laid were not being recovered, which meant the chances of them hatching in the ground were very slim.
The new MOU will update protocols around advocacy and breeding, but to date, there is no set code of practice and individual institutions deal with eggs as required.
Nga¯ti Koata is the kaitiaki/ guardians of the Southland Museum tuatara.
The Department on Conservation classifies tuatara as at risk – relict.
There are 70 tuatara in the care of the museum at the moment and about 35 in a predator-free enclosure off-site to hold surplus tuatara for future translocations. It was not known how many eggs had been laid this season, with the breeding season being spring, but there were eight breeding females.
On average two to three females would lay in a season.
The tuatara is no longer being taken out of the museum to visit schools or partake in other public outreach opportunities, and it is likely to stay that way until the MOU is developed.
The Invercargill City Council in its long-term plan has committed $2.5 million towards a $5m Living Dinosaurs Experience to be constructed in the 2019-20 year.
The facility would be a home for kakapo and tuatara with the intent to showcase the species to the public.