<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/26/henry-new-zealand-tuatara-age-130>
"About 130 years ago – as New Zealand women celebrated their world-first right
to vote, athletes competed in the first international Olympic Games, and the
first motion pictures were flickering into view – a tiny mottled green reptile
with a spiny back was hatching on a small New Zealand island.
The baby tuatara – a unique and rare reptile endemic to New Zealand – emerged
from his burrow into the forest floor, where he miraculously evaded birds, rats
and cannibalistic adult tuatara to reach his full adult size – nearly one kilo
in weight and half a metre in length – by the time he was 35.
Over the next few decades, he fossicked about Stephens Island at the northern
tip of the South Island, hunting by night and sunning himself by day. Then, at
roughly 80 years old, his time in the wild ended. In 1970, he was transported
to a museum in Invercargill, the country’s southern-most city, to begin a new
life in the public eye as ‘Henry the tuatara’.
Now believed to be between 110 and 130 years old, Henry is likely the world’s
oldest living tuatara and New Zealand’s oldest resident. He is also the most
famous and beloved of his species."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
