Tuatara

📸 Photo by Karissa Best on Unsplash
New Zealand’s reptile relic, the tuatara, keeps watch at burrow mouths on offshore islands. Spiny-backed and lizard-like yet alone in its lineage since dinosaur times, it hunts insects on cool nights and can live a century. Rats and rising temperatures now press this survivor.
Technical factsheet
Type:Reptile
Habitat:Island
Diet:Carnivore
Continents:Oceania
Size:30–80 cm long
Weight:0.5–1.5 kg
Activity:Nocturnal
Social behavior:Solitary
Lifespan:Up to 100 years
Habitat: The Tuatara can be found in New-zealand