This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The success of a large-scale recovery program for wētāpunga/Little Barrier giant wētā, New Zealand's heaviest insect, has been officially documented in the New Zealand Journal of Zoology. Over 15 years, tens of thousands of wētāpunga were bred at Butterfly Creek and Auckland Zoo, enabling 45 translocations of 11,000 wētā to 10 new wild sites.
As a result, the species' conservation status has improved from Threatened—Nationally Endangered (2004), before the program started, to Threatened—Nationally Increasing (2022). Chris Green, honorary research associate at the Department of Conservation, says it's vital to document the scientific knowledge gained from the wētāpunga recovery efforts. "The journal paper summarizes one of the most comprehensive case studies of invertebrate conservation breeding, translocation and species recovery ever undertaken in Aotearoa New Zealand, perhaps the world.
My co-authors have contributed significant expertise gained from years of hands-on experience working with wētāpunga. "By documenting this amazing conservation success story, we can share valuable knowledge on husbandry, release methods and population persistence. "The expertise, commitment and collaboration of many people and organizations contributed to the recovery of this iconic giant wētā." Ngāti Manuhiri, kaitiaki of wētāpunga and mana whenua of Te Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier Island, where the founding wētāpunga originate, provided ongoing support and engagement in the program.
Wētāpunga are taonga species for Ngāti Manuhiri. Butterfly Creek established early husbandry and release techniques, which Auckland Zoo subsequently refined and "industrialized" to rear huge numbers of zoo-bred wētā in communal nurseries. This greatly increased the number of animals for release and enabled the expansion of the program to multiple predator-free islands in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Islands and, most recently, mainland reserves north of Auckland.
Community restoration groups across the upper North Island were critical to the program, raising funds to support the resource-hungry intensive management of the wētā as well as helping to organize and support releases and ongoing monitoring. "The future of wētāpunga is looking bright. What we have learned is now informing breeding of Māhoenui giant wētā at the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House.
There are many more critically endangered invertebrates that could benefit from similar programs, for example, the Canterbury knobbled weevil (Hadramphus tuberculatus) and several native stag beetle species," says Green. Wētāpunga (Deinacrida heteracantha) is the largest species of Aotearoa New Zealand's giant wētā and the heaviest orthopteran in the world. Early European settlers cleared the land for farming and destroyed wētāpunga habitat.
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