TUATARA.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18682, 4 May 1926, Page 5

TUATARA.

AT LONDON ZOO. (from our own coßitF.spoNbEirr.) LONDON,-March 27. "When the Empire Exhibition closed down the New Zealand Commissioner presented the tuatara which had been in the Dominion Pavilion to the Zoological Gardens. Some facta ' regarding thiß specimen are recorded in The Times." It is provided with 2ft ol leaf-mould, in which it has hollowed otit a deep burrow. Generally it comes out of its burrow late in the afternoon, or even after dark, taking its meal of earthworms only at night. When the keepers come in the morning it js usually found sitting at the entrance of its burrow, and has no objection to their presence, but as soon as the Rep'tile House is opened ahd visitors begin to come in, it retires into the deptlis. Late last autumn it stopped coming otit, but Was left undisturbed, as it might bo hibernating. "The tuatara," says the writer of the paragraph* ''is coveted anatomically as well as in the living state, for it is probably the nearest of living creatures to the extinct dinosaur reptiles. Anxious anatomists begali to worry lest this valuable specimen had died, leaving its body to decay beyond all Uso for scientific purposes. And so it was dug tip last week. Ifc emerged alive, but Very cross and sleepy, its skin split along the back in process of moulting, tt Was given a warm bath, and soon completed its moult, took a large meal, and, when replaced, laboriously set to work to dig but its burrow again, into which ib has once more retreated.

Quick Adaptation. "It is remarkable that a denture from New Zealand, where the winter is our summer, should have reversed its habits so quickly and gono into hibernation at tho right season for its new home. A few animals brought from the Antipodes adapt themselves to the different seasons quickly, like the tuatara, but most either try to breed or to moult at what has become the wrong season, or stop breeding or moulting altogether. If they survive they usually slowly change their seasons, eo as to make them fit in with the new conditions. Tho tuatara's quick change is the more remarkable inasmuch as tho Reptile House is kept hot all the year round, and the hibernation could not have bcnil induced directly by the cold of the English winter. Probably tho exciting pause Was tho long hours of darkness iii Winter. Reptile's are even more sensitive to light than to temperature, arid mainrefuse to feed, except under brilliant illumination, whilst even those, such as the tuatara and pythons, which are nocturnal, are dull during the winter months."