Hauturu – Retreat for Reptiles

Hauturu-o-Toi (Little Barrier Island) has proved to be a haven for native reptiles as well as birds, plants and insects. There are eight species of skink and five species of gecko and tuatara. Hauturu has the most reptile species of any offshore island. There are rare chevron skink, found only on Hauturu and Great Barrier Island, and Duvaucels gecko – one of the largest in the world. This collection of reptiles is perhaps representative of how mainland New Zealand once was before mammalian predators arrived with human occupation.

Cold-blooded, reptiles use the sun to warm themselves. In cold weather they are slower to digest their food and to move. Surprisingly though, some have adapted to live in alpine conditions. New Zealand native skinks and geckos are found nowhere else in the world. Skinks are slender and shiny, usually brownish, often with distinctive markings. Geckos have broader heads and a velvety look to their skins that vary in colour and markings.

Most geckos are nocturnal. Both geckos and skinks eat insects, soft berries, nectar, honeydew and sometimes dead matter. They can live up to 40 years.

The ancient tuatara is among the most primitive of reptiles, probably looking no different now than it did 200 million years ago. They live most of their life in the slow lane and can live up to 100 years. The tuatara lays tough, leathery eggs in the soil, which take 11-16 months to hatch. Hauturu has had a breeding programme for tuatara on the island since the 1990s when concerns were raised that the island’s population was diminishing. This programme has been so successful that over 200 juvenile tuatara have been released back into the wild on the island. This programme is now being wound down. Over the last 20 years, visitors to the island have been lucky enough to see and help care for these ancient creatures.

When Polynesian rats (kiore) were removed from the island in 2004, it allowed for the increase in numbers and discovery of several reptile species not known to have been present on the island. Now 14 years on, lizard numbers on the island are such that some have been translocated to form founding populations on other islands in Te Moananui-o-Toi/Hauraki Gulf.

On the mainland, especially in the Auckland/Northland region, lives a small foreign skink known as the Rainbow or Plague skink. It arrived accidently from Australia sometime in the 1960s. It is an egg-laying skink, often laying five or more eggs at a time and can breed faster than our native skinks. It takes over habitat and food sources that our native species use. Its eggs and tiny young are very easy to accidently transport. This is one of the many threats to the ecosystem of Hauturu, and one of the reasons for strict biosecurity for visitors permitted to go to the island.

Lyn Wade, Little Barrier Island Supporters Trust
www.littlebarrierisland.org.nz