New Zealand is rich in wildlife and because of its isolation there are
hundreds of plants and animals that evolved here, that are found nowhere else,
but human introduced pests have threatened and even wiped out many species.
One of those is the native wētāpunga, it's one of the world's heaviest
insects and has been around for a hundred and ninety million years even
out living the dinosaurs. They used to be found all over New Zealand but now
they're close to extinction. These amazing ancient creatures play a vital
role in the ecosystem and without them other native plants and wildlife could
also disappear forever.
The Auckland Zoo has launched a set of programs to save the wētāpunga or wētā
starting with a new interactive exhibition that aims to excite the next
generation about insects.
This is like a bug's lair!
Featuring giant 3D model insects with educational games and puzzles Bug Lab
shows just how fascinating insects are.
So what do you like about these?
They look really big! You don't see these everyday. These are really cool to look at.
these children have never seen a wētāpunga, yet had they lived several
generations ago they would have spotted them in the garden.
Learning Center guide Kirsty MacFarlane explains why we should all care more about our native insects.
They're fascinating and people just dismiss them
and not only that they're really really important for the environment. I mean it's how
everything works together and without insects we wouldn't be here.
How important is it to teach younger people about insects?
Well they're the future right? so they're the ones that are going to have to be helping to keep
insects safe and to stop them from becoming endangered. If they can really connect with
insects at that young age and fall in love with them I guess
then that's going to be great for our future.
Exhibitions can be great for raising awareness for causes but it's just on
the other side of the zoo that some really significant work is being done to
protect and revive the threatened wētāpunga. I'm meeting Ben Goodwin an
entomologist at Auckland Zoo's wētāpunga breeding program. Hey Ben, how are you?
Good thanks, how are you? This is where our wētāpunga are kept.
This is one of the world's only industrialized insect conservation
programs providing the optimum light and temperature conditions for wētāpunga.
So these are the ones that you've bred? yep so we've got some adult wētāpunga in here.
That's incredible, this is massive! They're one of the heaviest insects
in the world. This is an adult female so they don't get too much bigger than this
Wētāpunga can weigh up to 70 grams that's the equivalent of three small mice!
Do you think I can hold her? Wow that's incredible! Do they jump, do they fly?
No so they're totally flightless, they've got really good camouflage, they're
nocturnal, so they're very very well adapted for bird predators but mammals
can just smell them out. So is that why they started to die out?
They were considered really common to the middle part of the 1800s and then humans
accidentally established rats in New Zealand and one turn of the century they
were basically extinct everywhere aside from one island. So besides the fact
that they're incredible why would you save the wētāpunga?
They have important functions to play in the ecology, so it eats foliage, it does massive
poos and they fertilize the ground. They're a species which I read about in
books as a kid so I feel quite privileged to be working with them now.
The breeding program started in 2012 with only 12 wētāpunga, since then over
three and a half thousand insects have been released on to a few key islands
which still provide the ideal conditions for them to flourish.
Today, Ben's readying a batch for transport.
So these will be the easiest ones to do because
they're the largest ones. So this whole thing comes out, they like to hide in these little tubes.
It's tiny and is this the size that you want to be taking to the island?
Yeah, once they've got a bit of size on them, they're a little bit more robust
they've got fewer predators then they're safe to go out into the wild. I'll just pop her here.
Right so that was the first female so i'll just do a tally here.
And whats the success rate of your breeding program?
Up to about eighty percent survival rate which is really really good.
Do you think they're upset that we've woken them up? I'm sure they are.
So that's everything which we're going to be releasing tonight, lets get out of here!
With our 385 wētā packed and ready to move
it's time to head to the docks. We're off to a private island in the Hauraki Gulf
one of four still hospitable to wētāpunga.
It's a one-hour boat journey from the mainland.
Rod and Sue Neureuter, the islands owners, are avid conservationists who have given
their land over to the protection of native species.
Have you always been involved in the releases? As much as possible.
In 2003 Rod and Sue finally rid the island of invasive mammals like rats
stoats and feral cats, making it a safe home for wētāpunga. We've never really
looked at ourselves as owners but more as guardians of this wonderful place
that we've had the privilege of growing up in. And how does releasing the wētāpunga
onto the island actually fit into all of your plans? So they're critical to the
health of the island, nothing exists in isolation. So the wētāpunga are
one of the missing links for building up the ecosystem? Yes it's part of the jigsaw.
Even though wētāpunga are a crucial piece of the landscape here,
the young insects still need to be handled
carefully which means selecting the perfect spot for their new home.
This is like a wildlife paradise!
How do you choose the sites where you release wētās? So this is one of
our release sites here and so we want to look for a place that's got lots of
hiding spots and somewhere that's got lots and lots of good food plants as well.
This is incredible, how old is this tree? So it's estimated to be about 800 years old.
You can see there's a fecal pellet from one of the wētāpunga, so it's a good
way to sometimes detect their presence if you can't actually find them. And that's
obviously really important for the ecosystem here. Yeah, so that's all packed
full of nutrients, so they're just recycling what they're eating and that's good for
the plants and the soil. Finding these droppings isn't only a sign of a healthy environment but
also evidence of an already thriving population that will surely welcome
newcomers. This is kind of the ideal spot, probably the best place in the whole island
for them to be released into, you can see its got
heaps and heaps and heaps of hidey holes for wētāpunga. Here's one of their
preferred food plants, they can go from this tree and disperse right across the
whole forest here because it's got a huge crown on it. The wētā will be
released at night when they are most active
this pink tape will help us find this spot in the dark later on.
I can't believe they've trusted me with these wētās. Alright it's the start
of the release site here. You can see how much more active they are
than this morning. There she goes! First one in. Are we gonna release more on this trunk?
No I think we'll move along.
So how important is it for you to re-establish wētāpunga here?
Oh it's awesome because it's just giving back something that probably would have been
here years and years ago. Hopefully their droppings will add to the forest.
Maybe just give him a real soft touch on the back.
So how much longer do you think you'll be doing these sorts of releases for?
We've got a few more releases to do and then after that it's mainly just monitoring the populations.
That was a big one. Wētāpunga now exist on four Islands as
invasive predators are slowly removed from other locations, that number is
expected to rise. The hope is that one day wētāpunga could return to the
mainland, where they once thrived.
There is certainly the will for change here in New Zealand, more people and
institutions are taking action in support of native species. The government
has even committed to rid the country of human introduced pests by 2050. There is
still a long way to go but at least the future is now looking optimistic for the
wētāpunga.