Natureland staff stoked with baby 'Tute'

PATRICK HAMILTON/The Nelson Mail

STROPPY: Natureland's baby tuatara growled when operations manager Gail Sutton lifted him up for his first photograph.

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This baby is just 10cm long but its arrival is a big event - baby "Tute" is the first tuatara born at Nelson's Natureland Zoo.

Operations manager Gail Sutton is excited because its parents were hatched from eggs transferred from Stephens Island, and this is believed to be the first time such an isolated, captive-raised, wild-sourced group of tuatara has reproduced. Good things take time and it has been a long wait.

The mother laid six eggs in November 2008 after carrying them for six months, and one surviving baby was discovered by keeper Vicki Long two weeks ago.

"We're pretty stoked. To get one is extremely lucky," Mrs Sutton said.

The baby is kept in a separate enclosure from its parents so they don't dine on him, and already it is eating tiny baby locusts.

Because it is the first time the Natureland staff have raised such a baby, they are carefully monitoring its weight and growth, and making sure it gets enough nutrients and light.

While it is small, it is also feisty and fast. When lifted for its first baby photo, the tuatara growled. "They are built to survive," she said.

Tuatara can live for 100 years so she is making sure this baby gets a good start.

She hopes to organise a webcam and screen so the public can take a peek at the baby without disturbing it.

- © Fairfax NZ News