Extremely rare footage of a tuatara hatching has been captured at Victoria University of Wellington. One of 23 eggs, the one featured in the clip was the last to hatch after being incubated in captivity as part of a joint initiative to help save a threatened population of tuatara from extinction.
Using a low-cost microcomputer and infrared camera, Warren Butcher from Victoria University’s Image Services team filmed seven hours of footage and then compressed it into a short video clip.
The tuatara caught on video is the 255th to be hatched at Victoria as part of a conservation programme run by Victoria University, the Department of Conservation and local Mana Whenua Ngati Manuhiri.
There are currently 30 known Tuatara populations, which can only found in New Zealand.
