One of the 56 tuatara that were released in the sanctuary on Wednesday. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Tuatara have been released at the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary in Nelson on Wednesday afternoon, the first mainland translocation of the reptiles in the top of the South Island.
Operations manager Nick Robson said 56 tuatara will find a new home inside a 3.7 hectare mouse-free enclosure within the sanctuary.
He said staff and volunteers had spent the last year preparing for the release and had worked closely with Ngāti Koata. The iwi are kaitiaki of the species due to their ancestral links to Stephens Island / Takapourewa in the Marlborough Sounds, which is home to the world's largest tuatara colony.
"Tuatara has always been one of those species we planned to get back but it has taken quite a while to get to this point.
"These are the first tuatara to come back onto the mainland in the top of the south so it is a very big event for the sanctuary but also a very big event for Ngāti Koata."
Ngāti Koata Trust pou whakahaere (general manager) Turi Hippolite said it was an honour to witness the return of the taonga tuatara to their ancestral home in Te Tauihu.
"This reintroduction strengthens Ngāti Koata's role as kaitiaki of the Takapourewa tuatara, connecting us deeply to our tūpuna, the land, and its unique species. We hope our mokopuna will continue this legacy, caring for and learning from these living treasures as they thrive."
The Brook Waimārama Sanctuary Trust was established in 2004, with 690 hectares of mature beech forest enclosed by a pest proof fence in 2016.
The Brook Waimārama Sanctuary is the largest fenced wildlife sanctuary in the South Island at almost 700 hectares. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
In the last year, volunteers had built a 500 metre mouse-proof fence, cut extra monitoring tracks, removed invasive weeds and drilled burrows for the tuatara to live in.
"It is very hard to keep mice out, they can get through a 7mm gap so it had to be a very well constructed fence to make sure that wouldn't happen but it's been free of mice since February so we are confident the tuatara will be safe in there."
The sanctuary received a permit from the Department of Conservation to translocate the tuatara, which are all captive animals that were either originally collected from Takapourewa/Stephens Island or are descended from Takapourewa/Stephens Island animals.
Most of the tuatara came from Wildbase in Palmerston North and Wellington Zoo, with smaller numbers from Natureland in Nelson and from the West Coast Wildlife centre in Franz Josef.
"The youngest ones are a year old, so they are about 10-15 centimetres long and then we've got some older ones, fully grown that are in their thirties."
Ngāti Koata Trust members carrying the tuatara into the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Robson said the tuatara travelled in postal tubes and were flown by Air New Zealand, to Nelson. They will be released in different parts of the enclosure, as larger tuatara were known to eat smaller animals.
An Otago University student would be monitoring the tuatara population intially, to see how they settle in, with the sancutary team to take over the ongoing surveillance, in the hopes the reptiles would breed in the coming years.
Robson said giant carnivorous land snails, or powelliphanta and Aotearoa's rarest parakeet, the kākāriki karaka have also been released in the sanctuary in recent years with great success.
The next on the list for reintroduction to the sanctuary are little spotted kiwi and South Island kākā.
The tuatara came from several sites around the country to their new home at the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee