Henry, New Zealand’s living fossil: a national icon

An endemic species of New Zealand amazes with its record age. It is a tuatara named Henry, but unfortunately in captivity. The reptile, once distributed across the country, faces several threats

You ask about “Henry” in New Zealand, but you won’t get some tale of an aged crocodile. The story will be about the tuatara. Small in size but huge in reputation, Henry the tuatara is a national treasure.

Henry is a tuatara, genus Sphenodon punctatus, part of the ancient order Sphenodontia that thrived in the age of the dinosaurs. He looks like a lizard, but he is not one- and he is more rare than he looks.

While it is rare to find any natural populations of wild tuataras, Henry is an exemption. He was born in the wild in South Island, New Zealand, and later captured and taken to a museum in Invercargill, Southland Museum.

These days, he lives his life in a special enclosure at the Southland Museum, better known as the “Tuatarium“. Henry is an exceptional animal for his species; he is the oldest known resident in New Zealand.

Museum records put Henry at over 110 years but maybe as old as 120. Tuataras generally live to about 60 years old in the wild, though some have been known to live to 100. But Henry out-lived them all, living long enough to see his caretaker retire last year after nearly five decades of looking after him.

Henry resides with approximately 100 other tuataras, but none of them are close to his age.

Physical characteristics of the Tuatara

A typical, average-sized tuatara is approximately about 1.6 feet, or 0.5 meters, in length, while it could weigh up to 3.3 pounds, or 1.5 kg at its full growth and maturity, which might take as long as up to 35 years to achieve. Native to New Zealand, the tuatara once roamed freely throughout the diverse islands of the region.

Conservation issues

Unfortunately, the wild tuatara faced several threats to their decline in population, including the rats introduced by the European settlers, poaching, and habitat destruction-all of which managed to confine wild tuataras only to a few offshore islands.

More conservation measures, other than understanding the issues with this species, ensure that future generations of tuatara are not limited to captivity. It is also important that we preserve natural habitats for this species so that no more Henrys will have to be confined in enclosures.

Sources: Southland Museum – Department of Conservation