A NEW ZEALAND REPTILE

Otago Witness, Issue 3594, 30 January 1923, Page 7

A NEW ZEALAND REPTILE

NOTES ON THE TUATAKA. By ¥m. Goodlet. The tuatara is the oldest living representative of the great reptile family. The Maoris called it tuatara, ruatara, tuatete. Professor Huxley has shown that it is closely allied to extinct reptiles of the Triassic age. The structure of the head is peculiar, as the teeth grow directly out of the bone of the jaw, while there is a third row down the roof of the mouth. These teeth wear down in the course of time, and are not renewed. A most remarkable structure is the rudimentary eye on the top of the head. This eye is covered with a horny scale, but at one time in the remote past was used by the reptile. Among the New Zealand reptiles, of which a number of species exist, the tuataras are the largest in size. They are fond of water, and will drink freely and bathe in it frequently, and I have found them sleeping under water. They sleep a great part of the day and move about at night. Captain Gilbert Mair describes one which had been kept in an old kumara pit on the island of Motiti for over three generations. The tuataras are usually said to exist now only on a few reserved islands round the north of New Zealand—Ruarima, Karewa, Alderman, and Hen and Chickens —and on Stephens Island. But I believe that they still exist in the country at the back of. the Thames. Two prospectors who oalled on me at the Otago Museum and saw the tuatara told me that they had no doubt of this, for they had themselves seen them and had a good view of them. The tuataras are very sluggish animals, and ar© very fond of basking in the sun. On the islands they live in burrows with the mutton birds or petrels. They will not burrow for themselves if they can get under a tree or stone or into a burrow made for them by the birds. They live on worms, lizards, grasshoppers, and all small insects, and they have been known to take the mutton birds’ eggs, but they prefer to take the young chick as soon as it is hatched. They are easily Satisfied when in captivity. You can- feed jthem on blow-flies by cutting off the the tuataras will catch them, but they need to see the insect moving. They will also eat slugs, worms, lizards, small fish, and even shellfish, such as periwinkle, which last I have seen them do myself. They see the fish moving in the shell and crush the shell and eat some of the broken part of the fish. In summer time they should receive a variety of food—on an average two or three flies or slugs a day, with changes. They will not take dead meat unless it is moved about and they see it moving. If they are allowed, they will sometimes make gluttons of themselves, in which case they cannot retain all they eat. They are very clean animals, and could be kept in a private house as well as in a public museum, as there is no objectionable odour about them. They will lie in a' dormant state for two or three months in the winter. In handling them a person has to be very careful, as they give a very severe bite, but they can be tamed by careful treatment, and one that has been well treated will soon become so tractable that on© can make a pet of it. They know strangers at once. They are very jealous creatures, the females especially, as my experience shows. If I had the male out handling it on the top of the case and left the female inside, as soon as I put him back she would give him a thrashing. If I had them both out together it would be all right. The female is much larger than the male, and has a dark skin; the male is much lighter in colour. From information I have received I believe that, if kept in captivity for any length of time, the female kills her male friend. In Nature it is an exception for the females to be the largest and strongest, but when they are they take advantage of the fact. This is the case with the spider: the female is the larger and kills the male and eats him. The tuatara is very fond of music. A picnic was held on an island where tuataras are to be found, and a number of people wanted to see them come out of their burrows. There was no musical instrument handy, but a little girl sang “ The Soldiers of til© King,” and all joined in the chorus. This did the deed and brought the tuataras out of' their burrows. The eggs take 13 to 14 months to hatch, this being don© by the heat of the sun and the sand. They are sometimes covered up inside the burrow, but more often:" outside in a selected spot. I believe the young, when hatched, get no support from the parents, as they have

sufficient nourishment stored up to last until they can feed themselves. If danger is about when the young ones are small they will get on the backs of the adults, which protect them or take them to the burrows. On the islands the birds, water rats, and harrier hawks kill the young. The adults can defend themselves from most of the birds and rats, but I believe the hawk is a really dangerous enemy. I was told by an eye-witness about a fight between a large rat and a tuatara on one of the islands. The tuatara got the rat by the neck and hung on, and finally went to sleep, the rat being thus suffocated. I was told by a halfeaste Maori that when he was mutton-birding he put his hand into a burrow to get a small mutton bird, but made a mistake, and got the tuatara instead. As a matter of fact the reptile got him, and hung on until he got a stick and killed it. In Hutton and Drummond’s book on the animals of New Zealand, it is stated that tuataras are not known to make a noise. But my experience is that when one is in a good humour, or when I am handling one and putting it round my neck it will make a noise not unlike that of a frog. Mr Norris, of Devonport, Auckland, told me that he was engaged by a German naturalist on the staff of the Strasburg Museum, who came to New Zealand mere than 30 years ago, and that they collected 150 tuataras from Karewa Island, the Aidermans, and Ruarima. Some of these are known to have been placed on Stephens Island. The intention was probably to stock that island, but it is likely that tuataraa were on it already, though I do not know of any record to that effect. It was probably in connection with this wholesale collecting that Mr G. M. Thomson proposed the following resolution at a meeting of the Otago Institute on June 10, 1885: “That the institute draw the attention of the Government to the wholesale deportation of tuatara lizards which has taken place from this colony, and that steps be taken to preserve these animals in the localities in which they still occur.” Tuataras have been bred in captivity in the North Island. A gentleman kept them in a large case, with everything that they needled. He did not know that eggs had been laid and covered up, and that the little ones had hatched out. He was feeding his tuataras on the common small lizards, and he noticed that what appeared to be two of them had been left after the others had been eaten by the tuataras. He was going to destroy them, but, examining them carefully, found that they were young tuataras; the old ones had recognised their own species. The case in which two tuataras are kept at the Otago University Museum is 4ft long, 2ft deep, and Ift 9in across. It would be better if it were larger. It has glass in front and back, and has wooden ends, and the top is covered by fine wire netting to prevent visitors or children from poking the reptiles with sticks. A shallow dish for water must be provided, as they like to lie in the water for long spells. Inside the case there should also be a drain-pipe or a pile of boulders, where they can get protection from strong sunlight or shelter when they hibernate or go to sleep. They are fond of basking in the sun, but they must also have shade. I have known tuataras die from the heat when kept in captivity in a case without shade. In a warm or mild climate a quantity of sandy soil should be placed in fihe case, so that if breeding takes place the tuataras can bury their eggs. They will then be hatched by the natural heat of the soil. When in Auckland last year, I saw Mr W. M’Donnell’s tuataras, which are kept in a case such as I have described. They had laid eggs, which Mr M'Donnell hoped would hatch. Whether they were fertile or not could bo proved only by waiting for 13 or 14 months, or by examining them under the X-rays. The case should be properly ventilated, and it should be cleaned regularly. The kind of food tuataras require has been mentioned above. I was once shown a case full of tuataras in one of our large museums, and was asked why they were dying off. The reason was plain enough—the case was badly ventilated, the water was dirty, and there were lumps of meat lying about, quite putrid. A case with the dimensions mentioned is not large enough, to allow sufficient exercise, and the tuataras should be allowed out during the summer. I choose a warm day and let them out on the museum floor. Here they crawl about, making occasional dashes, followed by long rests. One lias to be careful, however, about the temperature. After some years of life inside, my pet tuatara, Jenny, was taken outside on a chilly morning to be filmed, and she died at once. In handling them it is necessary to be careful not to grip them tight. The best way is to touch the tuatara lightly at the tail and then to work up slowly to the neck. Scratch it lightly there, and you can then easily put your hand under the body and lift it up. It will not attempt to bite you. People •who know nothing about them often grab them by the neck —a cruel way which entails, unnecessary danger to the man as well as to the tuatara.