How the tuatara got his groove back

For four decades, Henry's libido was non-existent. When his youthful partner Mildred - some 40 years his junior - suggestively proffered her rear, he turned away unstirred. On two occasions his disgust was such that he bit off her tail (thankfully since regrown).

But since having surgery for a tumour on his behind, Henry the tuatara has got his mojo back, it seems. At the grand old age of 111, he is about to become a father, he and Mildred having produced a batch of 12 eggs in mid-July. The reptilian couple - of a indigenous New Zealand species regarded as one of the last living descendants of the dinosaurs - can expect to meet their offspring when they hatch in about six months' time.

The pair of tuatara - descended from a lizard-like species that walked the earth 200 million years ago - have for the past 38 years been living at the Southland Museum on New Zealand's South Island. With the species in danger of extinction, the museum had set up the first dedicated breeding programme, and carers attempted to mate the pair on numerous occasions with no success. After the tail incidents, all hope of procreation had seemed lost. Henry - pictured left - became fat and lazy, his youthful vigour evaporating.

But after what may have been his first sexual act, museum staff say, Henry has transformed into a true ladies man.  The 2.6 pound, 23 inch-long representative of his kind is now enjoying the company of three females in his enclosure, with the next breeding season due in eight months.
 

“He’s definitely up for it, he’s become a real Jack the Lad since he lost his virginity,” museum curator Lindsay Hazley said.

Tuatara are found only in New Zealand and are the only existing members of the Order Sphenodontia, which was represented by many species during the age of the dinosaurs some 200 million years ago.

All species apart from the tuatara declined and eventually became extinct about 60 million years ago.

The tuatara has been classified as an endangered species since 1895. Threatened by habitat loss and the introduced Polynesian Rat, they were extinct on the mainland, with the remaining populations confined to 32  offshore islands, until the first mainland release into the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in 2005. They are currently subject to a ten-year recovery plan run by the New Zealand government.

Comments

[Tuatara]

Yeah but, how would you like to be banged up for thirty eight years?

[George Wasintown]

So much for factual accuracy. If all of your 'news' has been stuffed with fabricated nonsense as this article, then why would anyone still bother reading any of The Times' reportings? I'd say, give the author AND especially the editor a good spanking, for this kind of neglect to verify reported 'facts' can ruin a paper's reputation. I'm sure some of us will now eagerly start looking for inaccuracies in future Times' online articles or merely continue to read it for its entertainment value rather than keeping oneself up-to-date with the latest (real)news.

I did enjoy reading the article by the way.

[from southland]

I would never have considered that The Times would report on the reptiles that I, and every other Southland child, had to visit at primary school.
Back in the 80's, Henry appeared to be dead - or that was my 7 year old impression....clearly we were mistaken!

[Dawn Hooton]

Congratulations for this magnificent animal.

[Dawn Hooton]

Congratulations for this magnificent animal.

[Michael Towers]

As a child I was fascinated to read in an encyclopedia that tuateras have a "third eye" (really a pineal body that is sensitive to light). However, back then I really thought it had three eyes.

[ronski]

"one of the last living descendants of the dinosaurs" - I guess being the environmental editor does not require very much knowledge of the environment, or it's history!

[Chris]

Yes, I presume that they meant something other than "descendant of the dinosaurs" . . . because no evolutionary model has the tuatara (or any of its ancestors) stemming from any dinosaur or even almost-dinosaur.

The distant, distant ancestor of the tuatara probably broke ranks with the distant, distant ancestor of the archosaurs (modern crocs and alligators, along with dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and birds).

Later, this pre-tuatara also broke ranks with the distant, distant ancestor of modern snakes and lizards. But while the tuatara is very "primitive" for an amniotic-egg-layer, and has been called a "living fossil", all it shares with dinosaurs is a common distant ancestor, nothing more. Even crocodiles are more closely related to dinosaurs than the tuatara.

The poster who mentioned birds is correct . . . birds are almost certainly the only living descendants of dinosaurs.

[HarryBalls]

Remember, it takes tuatara to tangle. In fact, it now appears it takes fouratara to tangle, since the old stud has three hot chicks in his harem. Give it to them hard and often, Hank. Just a thought. HB

[Brien Comerford]

This reptile couple has had their trials and tribulations and I'm glad that they will have the opportunity to be better parents than many humans are.

[Martha Waring]

A very interesting - and humourous ! - article. If only we could hear more like this one, rather than the shootings and robberies that sell papers. We all know the world is a brutal, violent place, but articles like this one remind us that there is still a lot of mystery and wonder in it - and that makes life worth living!
Many thanks, Ms. Strange.
Sincerely,
Martha Waring

[Rutger]

http://www.digitalfuntown.com/videos/96 has video of the lizards doing it! Gross, but funny LoL

[Bill Corr]

Jolly well done, you Kiwi sex therapists!

Now to get cracking on the sorely-lacking carnal urges of those Aussie platypi / platypuses, who seem to have almost no sex drive or compelling desires for parenthood. And then the sexually-shy tortoises of the Galapagos and the Florida panthers and ...

[casualblogger]

congrats to Henry and Mildred and all the people working around them.

[Jonathan Dawid]

"Last living descendents of the dinosaurs"? Except for every living bird, presumably.