Where in New Zealand can you find tuatara?

Answer 1

The true and full answers are not known. But obviously they survived the catastrophe at the Cretaceous/Tertiary extinction event. The Tuatara is only known from New Zealand, and though it is often referred to as a "living dinosaur" this is incorrect as it has changed from from ancestral types.

After the Chixculub meteorite landed in Mexico some 65 million years ago, there were probably devastating fires world wide, and ash showers etc, clouding the sky. This would have destroyed much herbage, and some of the ash could have been toxic.

The animals best equipped to handle this were those that could hibernate (if adequately prepared - a chance of seasons); those that could secrete themselves; and of course, the higher predators in the oceans such as sharks.

The Tuatara is an animal of very slow movement, and usually lives in a burrow which has been excavated by a seabird, though it may make its own burrow if it has to. It takes about 12 to 15 months between copulation and hatching. It is a carnivore.

Answer 2

The tuatara has been unable to survive on the New Zealand mainland since the advent of human settlement. Various factors have contributed to their endangerment, and the offshore islands are the only place where these factors are more limited - though not, unfortunately, completely absent.

The main reason why the tuatara is extinct on the mainland is the threat caused by introduced predators. The kiore (Polynesian rat) is responsible for the decreasing tuatara population, as are the two species of rats introduced by Europeans, while cats, dogs, stoats and ferrets have also contributed to the tuatara's decline.

On the mainland, deforestation has resulted in habitat loss, which has meant less food and safe shelter for the tuatara.

The tuatara's own breeding cycle and slow growth rate makes this reptile one of its own worst enemies. Tuatara only breed every second year and they are long-lived, meant they do not begin reproducing until they are 15-18 years old. They cannot reproduce quickly enough to compensate for their numbers being reduced by predators.