Tuataras overseas status

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Kifaru Bwana

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
A news item from the Toledo Zoo got me started on setting up this thread on tuataras Sphenodon species overseas.

Toledo Zoo has just build a new exhibit for these highly unusual species. The zoo is said to maintain 3 tuataras. The project is a coop effort with Dallas Zoo, Texas and Wellington Zoo and NZ Wildlife Department. This confuses me somewhat as Toledo is only listed with a lone male and Dallas Zoo has 1.3 (see also listing below).

According to ISIS Sphenodon species are maintained overseas at:
Sphenodon guntheri
San Diego Zoo, US 3.5

Sphenodon punctatus
Berlin Zoo, BRD ?.?
Chester Zoo, UK 1.5
Dallas Zoo,US 1.3
St. Louis Zoo,US 1.3
Toledo Zoo, US 1.0

For the moment, I think only the San Diego Zoo stands a realistic chance at breeding tuataras. I do not think singleton males is a big help here. Since, most arrived young and they have a long period to go before maturity, they are especially vulnerable to stochastic effects.

Fingers crossed this new exhibit will up the chances of breeding Sphenodon overseas.


This is the link to the story: toledoblade.com -- Toledo Zoo's tuataras move to new exhibit today


Anyone have any suggestions as to the current number of 3 (sex and origin-wise)? :confused:
 
in 2002 Toledo had two tuatara and Dallas had five (and at that time they were all unsexed), so presumably one of Dallas' ones went to Toledo. Perhaps the ISIS listing for Toledo is meant to say 1:2 rather than 1:0 ??
 
I'm not sure, but I thought berlin had 8 tuatara's.
got the info from a belgian zookeeper who visited the park a few years back.
I've been there only once and saw only a single animal. but then again it is a pretty big enclosure with lots of hiding places.

the animals in berlin were also quite young, so I think they could only just recently begin to think of breeding them.
 
ISIS has a further listing of S. p. punctatus. Toledo has 1.0 S. punctatus and 0.2 S.p.punctatus giving them 1.2 in total.
 
Pygathrix said:
ISIS has a further listing of S. p. punctatus. Toledo has 1.0 S. punctatus and 0.2 S.p.punctatus giving them 1.2 in total.
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I'm not sure if that identification would be accurate. S.p.punctatus is the northern tuatara (from islands around the top of the North Island); as far as I know all tuatara outside of NZ, except for the San Diego Brothers' Island lot, are Cook Strait animals. It may be another ISIS mistake.
 
the Tuatara Captive Management Plan (2002) was produced to be used in conjunction with the Tuatara Recovery Plan 2001-2011; so I doubt there would be a new updated version produced before 2011 (if then)
 
I just discovered this thread, and since I was at the Toledo Zoo a few days ago I was quite impressed with the tuatara exhibit. The reptile building as a whole is very old and not the most welcoming structure that I've ever seen, but the tuataras had a fairly spacious, glass-fronted exhibit that contained a darkened den area. I see that there is some confusion as to how many of the lizards there actually are in Toledo, and I can promise you that I saw 2 in their new exhibit. Perhaps the third was hiding? When I was in San Diego two years ago I also saw a couple of tuataras in their outside enclosure, which is so densely planted that it is quite difficult to find the reptiles.
 
Snow Leopard:

Are you sure you saw tuataras in an outside exhibit at San Diego? Given their rather peculiar (for a reptile) climatic requirements I would be very surprised if they were not kept in a temperature-controlled indoor space, ala St. Louis, Toledo, Berlin etc.

On my last visit to San Diego I saw numerous rare Caribbean iguanas, some monitors and an interesting mix of smaller South African lizards in nice outdoor spaces, but would have done triple backflips had there been an outdoor tuatara habitat!
 
@reduakari: I must be mistaken in regards to the Tuatara exhibit at the San Diego Zoo, but I swear that I can picture it in my mind. A thinly wired fence set on an angle against the main building. It was just outside (barely) as one heads into the "Reptile Mesa" area. But your response now makes me doubt whether that description is true, and since it was in 2006 and I've seen countless zoos since then I could well be incorrect. I was sure that it was a split exhibit, with half inside and half outside...but who knows?

@Chlidonias: when my wife and I were going around Australia in 2007 seemingly everyone thought that we were Americans. We had to stress that we were from the more northernly part of North America...and had to promise that we could never have voted for George W. Bush!
 
reduakari said:
Snow Leopard:

Are you sure you saw tuataras in an outside exhibit at San Diego? Given their rather peculiar (for a reptile) climatic requirements I would be very surprised if they were not kept in a temperature-controlled indoor space, ala St. Louis, Toledo, Berlin etc.
Click to expand...

Reduakari, Chester have an outdoor area for their Tuatara as well as an indoor exhibit and I'd imagine it is much cooler in Chester than San Diego;)
 
I think the point is that it is too warm in San Diego and that tuataras there would need air-conditioned indoor space.

I've never seen the tuataras in their outside area at Chester, has anyone else?
 
Pygathrix said:
I think the point is that it is too warm in San Diego and that tuataras there would need air-conditioned indoor space.

I've never seen the tuataras in their outside area at Chester, has anyone else?
Click to expand...

ah didn't know that!

I've only ever seen one tuatara outside at Chester a few years ago now...
 
CZJimmy said:
ah didn't know that!

I've only ever seen one tuatara outside at Chester a few years ago now...
Click to expand...
That would probaly have been the old female from the old Tuatara enclosure,as i believe she spent most of the time out their but has now passed on to the long white cloud in the sky.
 
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