What's On at Zealandia

Wellington - 13 October 2021: The titipounamu/rifleman pair living on Te Ahumairangi Hill in Wellington have become proud parents. 

With their chicks, currently the size of a bumblebees, the pair of New Zealand’s tiniest birds are making history. 

When the pair were first spotted in August, 3km away from Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne, it was thought to be the first sighting of their species in that area in more than 100 years.  

“ If you go out in [ZEALANDIA] today, you`re sure of a big surprise “, because there are no juvenile tuatara in their former glass nursery. Six juvenile tuatara were judged to have grown big enough to cope in the wild. They were also judged to be healthy, so were moved into the wild to protect them from a fungal disease primarily affecting tuatara in captivity.