A SLEEPY TUATARA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 25 May 1926, Page 10

A SLEEPY TUATARA.

WORRIES GHOULISH ANATOMISTS. When tlie Empire Exhibition closed down the. New Zealand Commissioner presented the tuutara, which had been in the. Dominion pavilion, to the Zoological Gardens. Some facts regarding this specimen are recorded in The Times. It is provided with 2ft of leal’moulcl, in which it has hollowed out a deep burrow. Generally it conies 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 is usually found sitting at the entrance of its burrow, and jias no objection to their presence, .but as soon as the reptile house is opened and visitors begin to come in, it retires into the depths. Late last autumn it stopped coming out, but was left undisturbed, as it might be 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 began to worry lest this valuable specimen bad died, leaving its body to decay beyond all use for scientific purposes. And so it was dug up last week. It emerged alive, but very cross and sleepy, its skin split along the back in process of moulting. It was given a warm bath, and soon completed its moult, took a large meal, and, when replaced, laboriously set to work to dig out its burrow again, into which it has once more retreated. “It is remarkable that a creature from New Zealand, where the winter is our summer, should have reversed its habits so quickly, and gone into hibernation at the right season of 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 slow]v change their seasons, so as to make the nr fit in with the new conditions. The tuatara’s quick change is- the more remarkable inasmuch as the reptile house is kept hot all the vear round, and the hibernation could not have been induced directly liv the cold of the English winter. Probably the exciting cause was the long hours of darkness in winter. Reptiles are even more sensitive to lig]it than to temperature, and nianv refuse to feed, except under brilliant illumination, whilst even those, such as the tuatara. and nythons. which are nocturnal, are dull during the winter months.”