Living Dinosaurs get modern sanctuary
Giant Wetas rehomed

Michael Kopp
The Hutt News
20th February 2007

 Last edit 28 April, 2007 15:15

Another of New Zealand's 'living dinosaurs', the giant weta, has returned to the mainland after a century of extinction and survival only on predator-free islands.

One of the world's heaviest insects, growing to the size of a mouse, the Cook Strait giant weta (Deinacrida rugosa) is the 15th native species to find a protected home in Wellington's Karori Wildlife Sanctuary.

On 11 February the first contingent of the spiky, scary, but gentle relatives of the more aggressive common wetas everyone hates to find in their gumboots were brought from Matiu-Somes Island in the harbour to the refuge and welcomed by local Maori.

After blessing up to a hundred of the creatures - being kept in cardboard cat boxes - Kaumatua Ken Jackson said, "It is a wonderful feeling to have our brothers and sisters from the forest, these wonderful animals of the forest, back here with us."

Wellington Central MP Marian Hobbs, a former environment and biosecurity minister, also welcomed the weta, but with a bit less personal enthusiasm. Ms Hobbs is known to have an aversion to creepy-crawlies.

She seemed relieved the critters would not only be safe inside the predator-proof fence around the world-first sanctuary, a leader in not just preservation, but wildlife restoration, but that they would also be locked IN.

"I'm happy to welcome you here," she said. "I love you dearly, but my welcome does not extend to my own home."

Ms Hobbs was happy to watch the release, but was not going to volunteer to actually handle the beast, she said with a bit of a shudder. Little did she know...

This is the first attempt to re-establish the species since it was decimated on the main islands a hundred years ago by introduced predators. It is the first of four planned transfers of up to 450 weta over four years, all from Matiu-Somes and Mana Islands.

At around 70mm long, and weighing up to 27g, these mouse-sized insects are one of the world's heaviest, and, for many, the stuff of nightmares. But Deinacrida rugosa are gentle giants - non-biting herbivores far less ferocious than the smaller tree weta which bites.

"The giant weta is a living icon of New Zealand," said Sanctuary head Nancy McIntosh-Ward. "They have been around for over 190 million years and are as unique to our landscape as kiwi and tuatara." The sanctuary recently released tuatara there, which could be seen basking in the sun along the footpath on which the Weta were carried to their new homes.

Twenty giant weta are fitted with radios to monitor their movements, a first use of transmitters to track weta as part of a species transfer. The weta should breed, and indeed a pair was discovered mating already before their release. Males and females were released near each other in widely spaced locations.

Weta get their name from Wetapunga - the Maori god of ugly things. There are 11 species of giant weta found in NZ, and Deinacrida rugosa is by no means the largest. A giant weta found on Little Barrier Island weighed-in at over 70g.

Members of this family are also found in South Africa, Australia and South America, but our weta are by far the largest and most varied, with over 70 species, and new species still being discovered.

Release
Ms Hobbs and the other dignitaries trudged up the paths carrying their cat-boxes of wetas, and slowly the releases began, with Ms Hobbs continuing to keep her distance. But something strange happened; perhaps the urgings of the pack of photographers and cameramen, for Ms Hobbs suddenly found herself with a double-handful of giant female weta.

As she quickly knelt to release it, she had to hold it for the cameras far longer than she obviously wished. But finally her grimace turned to a smile that seemed genuine, and not just for the cameras.