Restoration of Tuataras To the Rangitoto Islands, New Zealand

The main event for the tuatara project in 2004 was the translocation of 343 head-started five-year-old tuataras to a new sanctuary, Whakaterepapanui Island. These young will contribute to the scientific baseline of knowledge on the effects of artificial incubation and captive rearing on the fitness of free-ranging tuataras for decades. The translocation involved Nga Manu Nature Reserve, which housed the juveniles for the past four years, the Zoological Society of San Diego, the New Zealand Department of Conservation, Victoria University, and the local Maori tribe, Ngati Koata. Translocations of tuataras conducted in earlier years were also monitored in 2004. As tuataras may live to be over 100 years of age and don't reach sexual maturity until they are in their teens, gauging the success of translocations takes decades. So far, all translocations show similar results: good survival of founding members and increased size of individuals. However, information on reproduction will take more time to collect due to the secretive nature and cryptic appearance of very small, young tuataras, as well as the extended juvenile period.

The tuataras has an unusually late nesting season in 2004 due to cooler than average temperatures. The temperature records of these nests will be compared with previous records from warmer years to determine how nest temperatures and nesting conditions affect sex determination of embryos and how global warming might affect population sex ratios. From limited data, it appears that tuataras visit the same rookeries each time they lay their eggs, and that nest characteristics are similar between rookeries. However, sex ratios differ between rookeries and years.

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