Queenstown's Kiwi Birdlife Park opens new reptile wing

Queenstown’s Kiwi Birdlife Park has this week opened a brand-new reptile wing to house its collection of rare and endangered wildlife.

The yet-to-be-named reptile facility will be the park’s new home for tuatara and critically endangered Otago and Grand skinks, designed specifically for their needs as they grow into adults.

With an average life expectancy of over 100 years and dubbed ‘New Zealand’s living fossil’, the tuatara that will live in the new enclosure have been with the park for 15 years, since they were babies the length of a finger.

The five tuatara that will call the new reptile house ‘home’ from now on are all named after Greek gods – and hilariously while all have male names, four of them are female.

Seventeen-year-old Zeus really IS a boy, while Brutus, Titus, Hercules and Ollie (aged 15 to 17) are all girls.


Queenstown’s Kiwi Birdlife Park brand-new reptile wing. Photo courtesy of Southern PR

“When they’re small it’s really impossible to tell the sex of tuatara, and we were told that their eggs had been incubated at a temperature that’s supposed to produce males, so we were a bit surprised to find out just how wrong we were when they started getting ‘lady bumps’ and laying eggs!” said park manager Nicole Kunzmann.

She described the new 60sqm facility as “just perfect” for the tuatara and skinks.
Reptiles have very specific UV requirements so this was taken into account during the building’s design stage with large glass sliding windows that act as a thermal bank to help heat the enclosure when closed. 

“Once direct sunlight hits the enclosure in the summer, we’ll be able to open these windows to enable access to unfiltered sunlight which is essential for the reptiles healthy growth and development.  A mesh screen will drop down in place of the sliding windows when open to provide safety for the animals,” she said.

“They like a coastal habitat so there’s plenty of moisture, sunshine and good earth for digging."


Wildlife Manager Paul Kavanagh releasing the tuatara into the new reptile wing. Photo courtesy of Southern PR

The Kiwi Birdlife Park has been working closely with the Department of Conservation (DOC) on a recovery programme for the Grand and Otago skinks (New Zealand’s largest lizards) that has enabled them to breed the animals as well as becoming a crèche site for any youngsters born in captivity over the next few years. DOC is working on securing a predator-free site for the skinks to be released into in approximately five years.
 
Based just a short walk from downtown Queenstown and nestled amid five acres of native bush, park operations and conservation work are funded entirely by visitor admissions and donations from people and businesses.

Ms Kunzmann said Kiwi Birdlife Park was “incredibly thankful” for everyone’s support and donations to help open the new facility, and said they were “too numerous” to name individually.


The critically endangered local Otago skink. Photo courtesy of Southern PR

“We’ve always relied on the generosity of others to ensure the future of the park and the precious animals within it.

“We want to especially thank all our sponsors for their donations, our contractors and the hard labour from volunteers who have made and continue to make the facility possible.”

“Chief of those would be our major sponsors ITM Southern Lakes and Ziptrek Ecotours, without whom the whole build would simply not have been possible.”

Other sponsors that contributed considerably included Metalcraft Roofing from Cromwell, Fairview Windows, Laser Electrical, Allied Concrete and NJ Blocklaying. Other suppliers were also “invaluable” in their support.

Enthusiastic supporters of the enclosure include local artist Tess Sheerin who has volunteered her time and talent to create a beautiful mural in the building.