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2d • 🦋Wildlife
Buggin’ Out
Today, I learned about a really cool invertebrate that Auckland Zoo and its conservation partners have been working for 15 years to bring back from the brink of extinction. The wētāpunga.
The wētāpunga is the heaviest orthopteran in the world. This insect group includes grasshoppers and crickets. These wingless gentle giants are nocturnal tree dwellers that mostly eat leaves and they help germinate, fertilize and distribute plant seeds throughout the forest. Wētāpunga were once widespread across northern New Zealand, but habitat destruction and human-introduced predators such as rats and stoats wiped them out everywhere except one island.
Today, more than 11,000 wētāpunga have been released across eight predator-free islands and two fenced mainland sanctuaries. Motuora and Tiritiri Matangi islands now have officially established populations, with at least four generations born in the wild. The other release sites are still being monitored, with wētāpunga continuing to be seen and spreading beyond some of their original release areas. Their conservation status has improved from Threatened–Nationally Endangered to Threatened–Nationally Increasing.
When I see people working together to restore a species we humans had a hand in wiping out, it gives me hope for the animals, for the Earth, and it gives me hope for us.
Together, we can bring this world back to what I believe it was originally created for: cohabiting with every form of life. We cannot remove one of the vital pieces and expect to survive. We were created together, to live together, not one without the other.
I’m including two videos because I just couldn’t choose between them. One is from eight years ago, and the other is from five years ago. They tell different stories with the same beautiful goal for the wētāpunga.
The first explains the breeding program, follows a release and shows how children are being taught about conservation. The second includes another release, a beautiful ceremony surrounding the return of this special species, and additional information on the program.
I’ll let you choose which one your heart wants to watch. Or watch them both. ❤️
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Buggin’ Out
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