Tuatara killed to cast model for Chinese

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 2

Tuatara killed to cast model for Chinese

PA Wellington [ 1 A rare tuatara has been i sacrificed in the interests of ; improving New Zealand's re- I lations with China. j< National Museum officials 1 ! killed the protected tuatara ' in Wellington after receiving what amounted to an export : order from a Peking museum. ' Special Wildlife Division ■ permission was needed be- ; fore the tuatara could be taken from the Stephens Is- < land colony and killed. The Chinese will not get i the tuatara, only a realistic : rubber casting. The museums chief tax-J: idermist (Mr W. Spiekman). said he disliked killing ani-i mals. But the healthy tuatara that had been killed would provide nearly 2000 highly realistic cast models, > more than enough to satisfy: up to 40 requests the mu-j seum received each sear for examples of the worldfamous reptile. The museum had beeij working off a 17-year-olu rubber mould of a tuat a that was a poor specimen anyway.

Museum staff members who visited China last year noticed that the Peking museum had only pictures of Tuataras and kiwis. So they [ offered to provide something better, which delighted the ! Chinese. Mr Spiekman said the recently killed tuatara would provide many models that I could be distributed worldwide and foster a better appreciation of the tuatara, the sole survivor of the reptilian order, Rhynchocephalia. A Wildlife Division (spokesman, Mr D. Newman, said there were about 20.000 (tuataras on Stephens Island, at the northern tip of the ■ South Island. Authorisation [was usually granted for up Ito 12 to be removed annually. Most of these went to zoos. I The tuatara model should be off to China in about three weeks along with two mounted kiwis. The kiwis •were not killed/by |puseum 'officials: they were road Vicaims. The museum's director (Dr L. Dell) said many kiwis were run over on New Zealand roads.