Jane Healy, Auckland Zoo
Auckland Zoo’s successful breeding of Aotearoa’s largest insect (and one of the world’s heaviest!), the stunning wētāpunga, continues with 385 more of these threatened endemic bugs released onto The Noises islands in the Hauraki Gulf.
This April’s release brings the total number of wētāpunga we have now bred and released onto safe havens The Noises, Tiritiri Matangi and Motuora, to almost 4000, and more releases will take place in the coming months.
For Ectotherms keeper Jenny Spencer, who joined fellow keeper Ben Goodwin and The Noises guardians and passionate conservationists, the Neureuter family for the night releases, it was “a first and truly unforgettable experience.”
“I’ve done a lot of field work over the years, but it’s always been about surveying and monitoring. This was my first time releasing animals to the wild, and it was fantastic,” says Jenny.
“After all the long, intensive days we spend working in the wētāpunga portacom servicing and caring for them, it was amazing to be able to put these precious wētāpunga into this pristine environment that really is a ‘weta wonderland’!
Ben Goodwin, Ectotherms keeper at Auckland ZooDuring this release, we did see older wētāpunga from a release we did here last year, which indicates that they are persisting and maturing here, which is great. It’ll just be a matter of time and monitoring over the next few years before we can definitively confirm that the population is establishing.
“They looked at home immediately the way they melted into the bark of the large pohutakawa trees. It was such a feel-good moment. I’d love to be involved in future releases so I can come back and see how these ones are doing,” says Jenny.
Ectotherms keeper Ben Goodwin, who has been involved in nearly all of the Zoo’s wētāpunga releases, says breeding is already taking place on a neighbouring island in The Noises, the first to receive wētāpunga, and also on Tiritiri Matangi and Motuora.
“During this release, we did see older wētāpunga from a release we did here last year, which indicates that they are persisting and maturing here, which is great. It’ll just be a matter of time and monitoring over the next few years before we can definitively confirm that the population is establishing.
“What we do know is that thanks to the inspiring and conservation-minded Neureuter family, this wonderful, unique and important species is being given the very best chance to thrive here,” says Ben.
