Stephens Island, lost in the Cook Strait that separates the North from the South Island in New Zealand, is a rather gloomy picture: rocky shores shrouded in fog, against which cold lead waves break, sparse vegetation. However, it is here - on a nondescript island with an area of ​​​​only 3 km2, that almost all zoologists of the world dream of visiting, since this is one of the last refuges of the most unique animal on the planet - tuatara.

Outwardly, the hatteria (Sphenodon punctatus) is very similar to a lizard: greenish-gray scaly skin, short strong paws with claws, a long tail, a dorsal crest consisting of flat triangular scales. By the way, local name tuatara - tuatara - comes from the Maori word for "prickly". It is possible that this may refer to its toothed crest.

And yet, with all the external similarities, the hatteria is not a lizard. Moreover, scientists did not immediately understand the significance of this unique reptile. In 1831, the famous zoologist Gray, having only the skull of this animal available, attributed it to the Agama family. And only in 1867, another researcher, Gunther, proved that the resemblance to lizards is purely external, and in terms of its internal structure, it stands completely apart from all modern reptiles and deserves to be singled out in special detachment Rhyncho-cephalia, which means "beak-headed" (from the Greek "rynchos" - beak and "kephalon" - head; an indication of the premaxilla bending down). And after a while it turned out that the tuatara is generally a living prehistoric monster, the last and only representative of a group of reptiles that lived in Asia, Africa, North America and even Europe. Tuatara somehow managed to exist for almost 200 million years, and without any significant evolutionary changes in the skeleton, and all its relatives died out in the early Jurassic period, in the era of dinosaurs.

Not so long ago, tuatara were found in abundance on the main islands of New Zealand - North and South, but, as excavations show, the Maori tribes who colonized the islands in the 14th century exterminated them almost completely. An important role was played by the dogs and rats brought to the island. True, some scientists believe that the hatteria nevertheless disappeared there due to changes in climatic and environmental conditions. Until 1870, it was still found on the North Island itself, but at the beginning of the 20th century it was already preserved on only 20 small islands, of which 3 are located in the Cook Strait, and the remaining 17 are located off the northern coast. north island. The population of these reptiles on the islands (half of which are uninhabited) is about 100,000 individuals. The largest colony on Stephens Island, where 50,000 individuals live - an average of 480 tuatara per 1 ha. On islands with an area of ​​​​less than 10 hectares - no more than 5,000.

Hatteria is a nocturnal animal, unlike many other reptiles, it is active when relatively low temperatures: +6° - +8°C. This is another of its many features. The tuatara moves slowly, while almost not raising its belly above the substrate. However, frightened, she rises on her limbs and can even run. It feeds on insects, spiders, earthworms and snails. He loves water, lies in it for a long time and can swim well. Winters in burrows from mid-March to mid-August. When shedding, the dead epidermis is shed in pieces. All life processes in the tuatara are slow, the metabolism is low, the act of breathing lasts seven seconds, by the way, it may not breathe at all for an hour.

Mating takes place in January, at the height of summer in the Southern Hemisphere. In the period from October to December, the female lays 8-15 eggs in a soft shell, the size of which does not exceed 3 cm. For clutches, she digs small holes, where she lays eggs with her paws and mouth and falls asleep with earth, grass, leaves or moss. The incubation period lasts about 15 months, much longer than other reptiles. Hatteria grows slowly and reaches puberty only by the age of 20. That is why it can be assumed that it belongs to the number of long-livers among animals. It is possible that some of them are over 100 years old.

Tuatara is one of the few reptiles with a real voice. Her sad, hoarse cries can be heard on foggy nights or when someone bothers her.

The New Zealand government has long recognized the uniqueness of this animal, and therefore the islands have had a strict conservation regime for more than 100 years - visiting the islands inhabited by them is allowed only with a special pass, and violators are severely punished. In addition, every single pig, cat and dog was taken from the islands, and rodents were exterminated. They all caused great damage by eating tuatara eggs and their young.

Therefore, now these secluded islands with their bird colonies and saline vegetation represent an isolated refuge, where only this ancient animal can exist in the image of its ancestors. So now nothing threatens these animals, unique in many respects, and they can safely while away their days in the most comfortable conditions for them on specially protected islands.

A very interesting feature of the tuatara is its coexistence with the gray petrel that nests on the islands, digging holes in which it usually settles with it. For most of the year, this neighborhood does not cause them any trouble, since the petrel hunts for fish in the daytime, and the tuatara leaves in search of prey at night.

When the petrels migrate, the tuatara hibernates. However, judging by the chicks found in holes with bitten heads, cohabitation is much more beneficial to the tuatara. But still, chicks are its occasional and rare prey.
Another amazing detail of the structure of the hatteria is the presence of a parietal, or third, eye that fits between two real eyes. Its function has not yet been elucidated. In a young tuatara that has just hatched from an egg, the parietal eye is clearly visible. It is a bare spot surrounded by scales that are arranged like flower petals. Over time, the "third eye" is overgrown with scales, and in adult tuatara it can no longer be seen. Researchers have repeatedly tried to find out if tuatare has any benefit from the parietal eye. Although this organ has a lens and a retina with nerve endings, suggesting that it is sensitive to light, the eye itself is devoid of muscles and has no adaptations for accommodation, or focusing. In addition, experiments have shown that the animal does not see with this eye, but it is sensitive to light and heat and helps to regulate body temperature, strictly dosing the time spent in the sun and in the shade.

Tuatara is the only modern reptile that does not have a copulatory organ. But even more important, at least from the point of view of paleontologists, she, like some ancient reptiles, has two complete bony arches in the temporal region of the skull. According to scientists, the skull of a modern lizard, open from the sides, comes from just such an ancient skull of a biarch type. Consequently, the tuatara retains the features of the ancestral forms of both lizards and snakes. But unlike them, it has not changed much over millions of years. In addition to the usual ribs, the tuatara also has a series of so-called abdominal ribs, which among modern reptiles are preserved only in crocodiles.
The teeth of the tuatara are wedge-shaped. They grow to the upper edge of the lower and lower edge of the upper jaws. The second row of teeth is located on the palatine bone. When closing, the teeth of the lower jaw enter between the two upper dentitions. In adults, the teeth are erased so much that the bite is already made by the very edges of the jaws, the covers of which are keratinized.

V.V. Bobrov, candidate biological sciences| Photo by Mikhail Kachalin

This is the only modern representative of the order of beak-headed reptiles. Outwardly similar to a lizard. Along the back and tail there is a crest of triangular scales. Lives in burrows up to 1 m deep. Before the arrival of the Maori and Europeans, it inhabited the North and South Islands of New Zealand, but late XIX century was exterminated there; preserved only on nearby islands in a special reserve. It is in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and natural resources(IUCN). Successfully bred at the Sydney Zoo.

Animals similar to the hatteria - homeosaurs - lived 140 million years ago in that part of our planet that has become Europe today.

From the famous English navigator James Cook, Europeans learned that in New Zealand there is “a gigantic lizard up to two and a half meters long and as thick as a man.” She supposedly "attacks sometimes even people and devours them." It must be said that Cook's story contains some exaggerations. The length of the tuatara together with the tail (male) is at most 75 cm (weight about a kilogram), and the tuatara does not hunt a person, but is content with more modest prey - insects, earthworms, sometimes lizards.

Europeans who arrived in the footsteps of Cook in New Zealand, almost put an end to the history of beakheads, numbering over 200 million years. More precisely, not they themselves, but rats, pigs and dogs that arrived along with people. These animals exterminated the juveniles of the tuatara and ate its eggs. As a result, the hatteria almost disappeared. Now the hatteria is taken under strict protection: whoever catches or kills this animal runs the risk of going to jail. Few zoos in the world can boast tuatara in their collections. famous English naturalist Gerald Durrell managed to get offspring of tuatara in his zoo, which he was presented with by the New Zealand government. Thanks to environmental protection measures by the end of the 70s. In the 20th century, the number of tuatara increased slightly and reached 14 thousand copies, which brought these animals out of danger of extinction.

For an uninitiated person, the hatteria (Sphenodon punctatus) is simply a large, imposing lizard. Indeed, this animal has greenish-gray scaly skin, short strong paws with claws, a crest on the back, consisting of flat triangular scales, like agam and iguanas (the local name for tuatara - tuatara - comes from the Maori word for "spiky ”), and a long tail.

However, the hatteria is not a lizard at all. The features of its structure are so unusual that a special detachment was established for it in the class of reptiles - Rhynchocephalia, which means "beak-headed" (from the Greek "rynchos" - beak and "kephalon" - head; an indication of the premaxilla bending down).

True, this did not happen immediately. In 1831, the famous zoologist Gray, having only the skulls of this animal, gave it the name Sphenodon. After 11 years, a whole copy of the tuatara fell into his hands, which he described as another reptile, giving it the name Hatteria punctata and referring it to lizards from the agam family. It wasn't until 30 years later that Gray established that Sphenodon and Hatteria were one and the same. But even before that, in 1867, it was shown that the similarity of the hatteria with lizards is purely external, and in terms of the internal structure (primarily the structure of the skull), Tuatara stands completely apart from all modern reptiles.

And then it turned out that the tuatara, now living exclusively on the islands of New Zealand, is a “living fossil”, the last representative of the once common group of reptiles that lived in Asia, Africa, North America and even Europe. But all other beakheads died out in the early Jurassic, and the tuatara managed to exist for almost 200 million years. It is amazing how little its structure has changed over this vast period of time, while lizards and snakes have reached such a variety.

A very interesting feature of the tuatara is the presence of a parietal (or third) eye that fits on the top of the head between two real eyes. Its function has not yet been elucidated. This organ has a lens and a retina with nerve endings, but is devoid of muscles and any adaptations for accommodation, or focusing. In a young tuatara that has just hatched from an egg, the parietal eye is clearly visible - like a naked speck surrounded by scales that are arranged like flower petals. Over time, the "third eye" is overgrown with scales, and in adult tuatara it can no longer be seen. As experiments have shown, the tuatara cannot see with this eye, but it is sensitive to light and heat, which helps the animal regulate body temperature, dosing the time spent in the sun and in the shade.

However, similar education in the upper part of the brain is present in all vertebrates, only it is hidden under the skull.

As excavations show, not so long ago, tuatara were found in abundance on the main islands of New Zealand - North and South. But the Maori tribes who settled in these places in the 14th century significantly reduced the number of Tuatars. An important role was played in this by animals that arrived with people, which are not characteristic of the fauna of New Zealand. True, some scientists believe that the hatteria died due to a change climatic conditions. Until 1870, it was still found on the North Island, but at the beginning of the 20th century it was already preserved on only 20 small islands, of which 3 are in the Cook Strait, and the rest are off northeast coast North Island.

The view of these islands is gloomy - cold leaden waves break on the rocky shores shrouded in mist. The already sparse vegetation was badly damaged by sheep, goats, pigs and other wild animals. Now, every single pig, cat, and dog has been removed from the islands where Tuatara populations have survived, and the rodents have been exterminated. All these animals caused great damage to tuatarams, eating their eggs and juveniles. Of the vertebrate animals on the islands, only reptiles and numerous sea ​​birds setting up their colonies here.

Female tuatara are smaller and almost twice as light as males. These reptiles feed on insects, spiders, earthworms and snails. They love water, often lie in it for a long time and swim well. But the tuatara runs badly.

Hatteria is a nocturnal animal, and, unlike many other reptiles, it is active at relatively low temperatures - + 6 ° ... + 8 ° C - this is another interesting feature of its biology. All life processes in the hatteria are slow, the metabolism is low. There is usually about 7 seconds between two breaths, but a tuatara can stay alive without taking a single breath for an hour.

Winter time - from mid-March to mid-August - tuatara spend in burrows, falling into hibernation. In spring, females dig special small burrows, where with the help of their paws and mouth they carry a clutch of 8-15 eggs, each of which is about 3 cm in diameter and is enclosed in a soft shell. From above, the masonry is covered with earth, grass, leaves or moss. The incubation period lasts about 15 months, which is much longer than that of other reptiles.

Tuatara grows slowly and reaches puberty no earlier than 20 years. That is why we can assume that she belongs to the number of outstanding centenarians of the animal world. It is possible that the age of some males exceeds 100 years.

What else is this animal famous for? Tuatara is one of the few reptiles with a real voice. Her sad, hoarse cries can be heard on foggy nights or when someone bothers her.

Another one amazing feature tuatara - its coexistence with gray petrels, which nest on the islands in their own dug holes. Hatteria often settles in these holes, despite the presence of birds there, and sometimes, apparently, destroys their nests - judging by the finds of chicks with bitten heads. So such a neighborhood, apparently, does not bring great joy to the petrels, although usually birds and reptiles coexist quite peacefully - the tuatara prefers other prey, which it goes in search of at night, and in the daytime the petrels fly into the sea for fish. When the birds migrate, the tuatara hibernates.

The total number of living tuatara is now about 100,000 individuals. The largest colony is located on Stephens Island in the Cook Strait - there, on an area of ​​​​3 square meters. km lives 50,000 tuatars - an average of 480 individuals per 1 ha. On small islands less than 10 hectares in size, populations of tuatara do not exceed 5,000 individuals. The New Zealand government has long recognized the value of the amazing reptile for science, and there has been a strict conservation regime on the islands for about 100 years. You can visit them only with special permission, and strict liability is established for violators.

Tuatara are not eaten and their skins are not in commercial demand. They live on remote islands, where there are neither people nor predators, and are well adapted to the conditions existing there. So, apparently, nothing threatens the survival of these unique reptiles at present. They can safely while away their days on secluded islands to the delight of biologists, who, among other things, are trying to figure out the reasons why the tuatara did not disappear in those distant times when all its relatives died out.

Perhaps we should learn from the people of New Zealand and how to protect our natural resources. As Gerald Durrell wrote, “Ask any New Zealander why they guard the tuatara. And they will consider your question simply inappropriate and say that, firstly, this is a one-of-a-kind creature, secondly, zoologists are not indifferent to it, and thirdly, if it disappears, it will disappear forever.

In New Zealand, on small rocky islands to the north of it and in the strait between the North and South Islands, lives a creature older than some giant lizards. jurassic. This is the famous three-eyed reptile - tuatara.


These reptiles appeared about 200 million years ago and have not changed a bit since then. That is, in front of you you see a real “living fossil”.


"Living Fossil"

At first glance, the hatteria looks like an ordinary one. large lizard Or, more specifically, the iguana. The length of her body is 65-75 centimeters, this is together with the tail. It is colored olive green or greenish gray, and yellow spots of various sizes can be seen on the sides of the body and on the limbs. Like iguanas, along its back, from the back of the head to the tail, there is a low crest, consisting of triangular plates. Thanks to him, the reptile received another name, but from local residents maori - tuatara, which means "prickly".

"Barbed"
young tuatara

But it's not a lizard. Her special structure of the body, and especially the head, did not fit the description of any of the then existing units of the class of reptiles. Therefore, in the second half of the 19th century, a special detachment was established for the tuatara - beak-headed (lat. Phynchocephalia).



The fact is that in the structure of the skull of the hatteria there is one feature - in young individuals, the upper jaw, roof of the skull and palate are mobile relative to the braincase. This phenomenon is called skull kinetics. As a result, the anterior end of the upper jaw can be slightly bent down and pulled back with complex movements of other parts of the skull. Terrestrial vertebrates inherited this phenomenon from lobe-finned fish- their very distant ancestors. But the kinetism of the skull is inherent not only in tuatara, but also in some species of lizards and snakes.


Tuatara skull

Tuatara is special in every way. Beyond the unusual internal structure skull and skeleton, the special attention of zoologists is attracted by the presence of a peculiar organ in it - the parietal (or third) eye in the occipital part. It is most noticeable in young individuals. The eye looks like a bare spot surrounded by scales. This organ has light-sensitive cells and a lens, but it lacks the muscles to focus the location of the eye. Over time, it overgrows, and in adults it is already difficult to see it. So what is it for?



sleeping tuatara

Its purpose is still not exactly clear, but it is assumed that with its help the lizard can determine the level of light and heat, which helps the animal control its stay in the sun. Thanks to this, she can regulate her body temperature.



Slow metabolism and slow life processes are another feature of its biology. Because of this, it grows and develops very slowly. The tuatara reaches sexual maturity only by 15-20 years, and its life expectancy is about 100 years. I immediately remembered another long-liver of the animal world - which, to our surprise, does not have a slow metabolism, but can easily live for a century.

dwelling

The next feature of the tuatara lies in its cohabitation on islands with gray petrels. Reptiles settle in their nests, which causes discontent among the birds. Initially, it was believed that they could exist peacefully and friendly with each other, but it turned out that sometimes tuatara ruin their nests during the breeding season. Although the hatteria still prefers other prey, in search of which it goes at night. It feeds on earthworms, snails, insects and spiders, but, as it turned out, sometimes a new dish is added to this menu - the meat of a young bird.




At the height of summer, which begins in January in the Southern Hemisphere, the breeding process begins in the hatteria. After 9-10 months, the female lays 8-15 eggs, which are buried in small minks. The incubation period is very long - 15 months, which is unusual for other reptiles.


Tuatara egg

Due to its importance to science and its limited habitat, the tuatara is protected. On all the islands where it lives, a reserved regime has been introduced for about 100 years. All dogs, pigs and cats were taken out from there, rodents were destroyed, as they caused serious damage to the population of this “living fossil”, destroying their eggs and juveniles. Visiting these islands is now possible only by special invitation, and violators face imprisonment.

The tuatara, known as the tuatara (Sphenodon punstatus), is a very rare reptile that is the only modern representative belonging to the ancient order of beakheads and the wedge-toothed family.

Description of the tuatara

At first glance, it is quite possible to confuse a hatteria with an ordinary, fairly large lizard.. But there are a number of characteristics that allow you to seamlessly distinguish between representatives of these two types of reptiles. The body weight of adult male tuatara is about a kilogram, and sexually mature females weigh almost half as much.

Appearance

Similar in appearance to an iguana, an animal belonging to the genus Sphenodon has a body 65-75 cm long, including the tail. The reptile is characterized by an olive-green or greenish-gray coloration on the sides of the body. On the limbs there are pronounced, yellowish spots that vary in size.

Also, like in the iguana, along the entire surface of the back of the tuatara, starting from the occipital region and up to the tail, there is a not too high crest, which is represented by characteristic, triangular-shaped plates. It was thanks to such a crest that the reptile received another very original name - tuatara, which means “prickly” in translation.

However, despite resemblance with a lizard, around the end of the second half of the nineteenth century, this reptile was assigned to the beak-headed order (Phynchoserhalia), which is due to the structural features of the body, in particular the head area.

A distinctive feature of the structure of the tuatara cranium is an interesting feature presented in the youngest individuals by an unusual upper jaw, skull roof and palate, which have pronounced mobility relative to the brain box.

This is interesting! In fairness, it should be noted that the presence of skull kinetics is inherent not only in such a reptile as the tuatara, but is also characteristic of some species of snakes and lizards.

Such unusual structure in tuatara was called cranial kinetism. The result of this feature is the ability of the anterior end of the upper jaw of the animal to bend slightly downward with retraction under conditions of rather complex movements in the region of other parts of the skull of a rare reptile. The feature is inherited by terrestrial vertebrates from the lobe-finned fish, which is a proven and very distant ancestor of the tuatara.

In addition to the original internal structure of the cranium and skeletal part, special attention It is worthy of domestic and foreign zoologists that a reptile has a very unusual organ, represented by a parietal or third eye, located in the back of the head. The third eye is most pronounced in the youngest immature individuals. The appearance of the parietal eye resembles a bare spot that surrounds the scales.

Such an organ is distinguished by photosensitive cells and a lens, with total absence muscles that are responsible for focusing the location of the eye. In the process of gradual maturation of the reptile, the parietal eye overgrows, so in adults it is difficult to distinguish.

Lifestyle and character

The reptile shows activity only at low temperatures, and the animal's body temperature is optimal in the range of 20-23 ° C. In the daytime, the hatteria always hides in relatively deep burrows, but with the onset of evening coolness it goes hunting.

The reptile is not very mobile. The tuatara is one of the few reptiles that have a real voice, and the mournful and hoarse cries of this animal can be heard on foggy nights.

This is interesting! TO behavioral features tuatara can also be attributed to cohabitation on island territories with the gray petrel and the massive settlement of bird nests.

In winter, the animal hibernates. A tuatara caught by the tail quickly throws it away, which often allows the reptile to save its life when attacked. natural enemies. The process of regrowth of a discarded tail takes a long time.

Characteristic is the ability of representatives of the beakhead order and the wedge-toothed family to swim very well, and also to hold their breath for an hour.

Lifespan

One of biological features such a reptile as a tuatara is a slow metabolism and inhibited life processes, which causes not too rapid growth and development of the animal.

The tuatara becomes sexually mature only by the age of fifteen or twenty, and the total life expectancy of a reptile in natural conditions may well be a hundred years. Individuals raised in captivity, as a rule, live no more than five decades.

Range and habitats

area natural habitat tuatara until the fourteenth century was represented by the South Island, but the arrival of the people of the Maori tribes caused the complete and fairly rapid disappearance of the population. On the territory of the North Island, the last individuals of the reptile were seen at the beginning of the twentieth century.

To date, the habitat of the most ancient reptile New Zealand tuatara are exceptionally small islands near New Zealand. The habitat for the hatteria was specially cleared of wild predatory animals.

Tuatara nutrition

Wild tuatara has an excellent appetite. The diet of such a reptile is very diverse and is represented by insects and worms, spiders, snails and frogs, small mice and lizards.

Quite often, hungry representatives of the ancient order of beakheads and the Wedge-toothed family destroy bird nests, eat eggs and newborn chicks, and also catch small birds. The caught prey is swallowed almost completely by the tuatara, after it is only lightly chewed by very well developed teeth.

Reproduction and offspring

In the midst of summer period, which comes to the territory of the Southern Hemisphere at about last decade January, an unusual reptile, belonging to the ancient beakhead order and the Wedge-toothed family, begins the process of active reproduction.

After fertilization occurs, eight to fifteen eggs are laid by the female after nine or ten months. The eggs laid in small minks are buried with earth and stones, after which they are incubated. The incubation period is very long, about fifteen months, which is absolutely unusual for other types of reptiles.

This is interesting! The optimal temperature level, which allows an approximately equal number of tuatara cubs of both sexes to be born, is at 21 ° C.

Scientists from one of the leading Wellington Universities conducted very interesting and unusual experiments, during which they managed to establish a direct relationship between temperature indicators and the sex of the hatched offspring of the hatteria. If the incubation process occurs at temperature regime at a level of plus 18 ° C, then only females are born, and at a temperature of 22 ° C, only males of this rare reptile are born.

natural enemies

This is interesting! Due to the very low rates of metabolic processes, the reptile tuatara or the so-called tuatara has a very interesting feature– she is able to breathe with a difference of seven seconds.

At present, the process of settling the islands inhabited by "living fossils" is controlled as carefully as possible by the people themselves. So that nothing threatens the population of the three-eyed lizard, the number of all types of predators inhabiting the territory is strictly controlled.

Everyone who wants to see the unusual appearance tuatara in its natural habitat in without fail must obtain a special permit or so-called pass. Today Hatteria or Tuatara is listed on the pages of the International Red Book, and the total number of all existing reptiles is about one hundred thousand individuals.

Who is called the "prehistoric monster" or Hatteria (lat. Sphenodon punctatus) - the only one of its kind.

A group of reptiles originated from the Permian cotilosaurs, in which the evolution of the skull followed the path of reduction (simplification of the structure, in this case, lightening the weight of the skull due to the formation of temporal pits).

This is how the diapsid group arose, which includes two subclasses - lepidosaurs and archosaurs. Lepidosaurs from modern reptiles include a numerical series of scaly ones and the only representative of the ancient branch of reptiles - tuatara. It is both a species, a genus, and a family, as well as a number of beak-headed or proboscis-headed ones.


Tuatara or tuatara is a rare animal with a scientifically very interesting body structure. It has so many qualities of primitive organization, in common with reptiles that lived in the Permian period and the early Triassic, that it is called a living fossil. Outwardly, the tuatara is similar to big lizard. The length of her body reaches 75 cm. On the back of her head, as well as along her back and tail, she has a crest, consisting of sharp plates - spikes. Hence its second name - tuatara. In the language of the Maori - the indigenous people of New Zealand - this means: "the one that carries the thorns."

The body of the tuatara is massive, the five-fingered limbs are horizontally located, the tail is long, trihedral. The head is quite large, on its sides are big eyes with vertical pupils. The body is covered with scales of various sizes, and there are quadrangular scutes on the ventral side. The coloration is olive green with small white and large yellow spots. The color of the crest on the back is light yellow, and on the tail is brown. For its 165 million. The hatteria hasn't changed much over the years.


By way of life, these are nocturnal animals, only in the evening they leave their holes to bask in the sun. They get food at night. They feed mainly on insects, molluscs and worms, and if the opportunity presents itself, then lizards and small birds. Amazing property heterium is their ability to remain active at sufficiently low temperatures (6-18 ° C). That's why winter dream them not strong, and in sunny days they wake up and even come out of their holes.


Tuataria begin to breed only at the age of 20. Mating takes place in January. Males at this time vigorously defend their individual sites. To make a proper impression on the opponents and the partner, they raise the crest and spikes on their backs. If the tuatara is in danger, it also “bristles”. IN mating season males fight fiercely for the right to mate with the female. Often they inflict serious damage on each other. After some time, around October-December, the female lays her eggs.


Further growth and development of young animals is also a very long process. Hard-shelled eggs in the amount of 9-17 are buried in burrows. The female guards the clutch from other females and makes sure that they do not lay their eggs there. The hole is located in an open place, which is well warmed up by the rays of the sun. Egg development lasts approximately 12-15 months, this is the longest incubation period in reptiles. Before hatching, the young grow a hard, horny tooth on their muzzle, with which they pierce the soft shell of the egg. Tuataria grow very slowly.


The government of New Zealand, where they live, is doing everything possible to save these rare reptiles. It is strictly forbidden not only to catch live, but also to pick up dead animals, which are a valuable find for zoologists, because tuatara live for a very long time (up to 100 years), and therefore the opportunity to study their internal structure is rare. It is believed that the first settlers from Polynesia, who once settled in New Zealand, hunted for meat, which, however, as in many similar cases, did not pose a serious threat to these reptiles, and their numbers were approximately constant.


The real danger for these amazing creatures arose after the Europeans appeared on the islands and brought their pets with them. By then, perhaps the absence natural enemies contributed to the conservation of this species. So, the hatteria could not resist dogs, cats and pigs. These domestic animals hunted the gerbils and ate their eggs. And within a very short period of time, the populations of the Gatherians that lived on the North and South Islands disappeared. The next threat are rabbits brought from Europe. They eat grass and destroy the habitats of many species of insects that tuatara feed on.

The habitats of the hatteria suffered not only destruction, but also strong changes. The islands where this ancient lizard lives are declared nature reserves. Now this species has the status of a vulnerable species and is listed in the Red Book. International Union Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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