Tuataras the last of their kind - Sphenodon - part of ancient New Zealand...

Experiencing New Zealand the way it used to be - 200 million years ago before humankind evolved.

A species of tuatara the survivors of the reptilian order of Sphenodontia were in danger of extinction until the Victoria University of Wellington led surveys in the early 1990'S on the 300 hectares island of Hautura in the Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand's North Island.

Eight adult tuatara were found and kept in captivity on the island to protect them from Pacific rats also living there.

Since 1994 staff in the biological sciences of the university have been incubating and hatching eggs laid by these tuatara and sending them back to Hautura, also known as Little Barrier Island.

Back there they have been raised by Conservation Department staff in safe tuatariums awaiting rat eradication which would enable their release.

So far the eight founder tuatara have produced 100 offspring. Those released are both male and female, and aged from eight to twelve years old. A further 40 remain in captivity and will be released when they are large enough to better defend themselves.

In 2004 a rat eradication program began and by June last year the island was declared rat free!