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New Zealand’s biggest insect, the giant wētāpunga, has become the latest species to be reintroduced at Tāwharanui Open Sanctuary, following the release of more than 220 of the super-sized crickets in the regional park last month.
It was only the second mainland release of wētāpunga, which although once common in Auckland and the north, have in recent years become confined to just one natural habitat – Hauturu Little Barrier – plus a few pest-free islands in the Hauraki Gulf.
The Tāwharanui release operation was a joint effort between Auckland Council, open sanctuary society TOSSI and Butterfly Creek, the South Auckland zoo and animal park that pioneered a revolutionary wētāpunga breeding programme in 2009.
Zoo staff, Council rangers and volunteers collected crates of the wētāpunga from Butterfly Creek early on October 28 and brought them to the park in a ‘Wēta Waka’ for release into a remote section of remnant forest, well away from busy public tracks.
The wētāpunga were a mix of different ages, sizes and genders, each in its own labelled plastic box which, after a karakia to welcome and bless them, were put into shopping bags and carried into the steeply banked bush by two release teams. Each insect was then gently encouraged into sections of bamboo that had been strapped to various tree trunks and branches in advance.
Butterfly Creek zookeeper Paul Barrett said the wētāpunga would eventually find their own preferred homes, but the bamboo lodges offered the best initial protection from predators.
Council’s senior ranger for open sanctuaries, Matt Maitland, said Tāwharanui, as well as Shakespear Regional Park at Army Bay, were chosen as the first mainland sites as they were free of pest mammals, but said the wētāpunga were still tempting prey for many birds, principally ruru (morepork), tīeke (saddleback) and kōtare (kingfisher).
“And any insectivore bird will have a crack at the little ones,” he said.
The release of wētāpunga at Tawharanui has been a long-held dream for park staff and volunteers, made possible by the Butterfly Creek captive breeding programme and knowledge acquired observing island colonies over several years.
Maitland said the last three species reintroductions to Tāwharanui had all been giants – NZ’s biggest surviving lizard, Duvaucel’s gecko, in 2016; its biggest surviving fish, the giant kokopu, in 2018; and now the nation’s biggest insect, the wētāpunga.
Adult wētāpunga can weigh up to 35g and they shed their hard exoskeleton 11 times before reaching breeding maturity. Females lay eggs in the soil, which take from six to 10 months to hatch.
Butterfly Creek staff said that anyone feeling slightly nervous at the prospect of encountering one of the giant armoured insects shouldn’t worry – they are shy, mostly nocturnal and hidden in the depths of the bush in one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of the park.
