Baby Tuatara Discovered During Museum Demolition

• Four baby tuatara found alive at Invercargill museum demolition site.
• Discovery highlights tuatara’s resilience and successful breeding after relocation.
• New tuatara enclosure to open on June 8 in Queens Park.

In a surprising discovery, four baby tuatara have been found alive and well at the demolition site of Invercargill’s former museum.

Invercargill’s resident tuatara were moved from their museum home in February 2023 to make way for Invercargill City Council’s project to demolish and rebuild the museum, along with the construction of a separate tuatara enclosure in Queens Park.

Council Parks and Recreation Manager Caroline Rain said that on Wednesday morning, a sharp-eyed member of the demolition contractor team spotted a baby tuatara in the animals’ former enclosure. “Following the discovery, our living species team did a sweep of the former enclosure and discovered three more babies hiding in the soil,” Rain said.

“It was certainly an unexpected surprise and we are so pleased to find these resilient animals so healthy and well. The contractors working in the museum are doing so with the utmost care as they could come across many hidden treasures in the old build. We are so grateful they came across these experts of survival.”

Rain said that while every effort had been made to comprehensively search through the old enclosure when the tuatara were moved last year, it is highly likely these were eggs that had yet to hatch at that time.

The four baby tuatara range in size from 110mm to 120mm and weigh from 5g to 9g, indicating they are likely less than 12 months old, Rain added. “Tuatara dig a nest in the ground to bury their eggs and they can be very difficult to find. We have gone back in to undertake a further thorough check.”

Demolition works were paused in this area of the museum until the all-clear was given, she said. “Another exciting aspect of this discovery is that the babies were discovered in the area where the Brothers Island tuatara were housed, and these particular tuatara were not thought to be capable of breeding as they had not done previously during the time there had been a breeding programme in place.”

Invercargill’s new tuatara enclosure, which is set to open to the public on Saturday, June 8, can house up to 18 tuatara. “With 17 residents already with us, we will need to look at other homing options for these new babies when they are old enough to be translocated,” Rain said.

The new tuatara enclosure, situated in the Queens Park animal reserve, will open to the public at 10am on Saturday, June 8, with a range of celebrations planned, including free face painting, tuatara talks, rock hunts, a sausage sizzle, and more.