Nearly 200 critically endangered M\u0101hoenui giant w\u0113t\u0101 have been released today from \u014ctorohanga Kiwi House to Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari. <\/p>\n
The M\u0101hoenui giant w\u0113t\u0101 \u2013 originating from a single site in the North Island \u2013 was one of the world\u2019s largest insects, measuring up to 7cm and weighing approximately 15 grams.<\/p>\n
About 193 of the nocturnal insects, classified as “nationally critical”, were released from \u014ctorohanga Kiwi House, that homed a captive breeding programme and specially built laboratories. <\/p>\n
The last time M\u0101hoenui giant w\u0113t\u0101 were released to the mountain was in 2012-13, the Department of Conservation said. They were previously translocated to private land at Warrenheip, near Cambridge, and Mahurangi Island off the Coromandel coast.<\/p>\n
DOC senior biodiversity adviser Amanda Haigh said today’s release “reflects just how successful \u014ctorohanga Kiwi House\u2019s captive breeding programme has been”.<\/p>\n
\u201cReleasing the precious offspring of captive w\u0113t\u0101 into a natural habitat at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari \u2013 free of predators and threats \u2013 is really rewarding for everyone involved. <\/p>\n
“Our hope is they breed with offspring of those M\u0101hoenui giant w\u0113t\u0101 released at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari in 2012-13.”<\/p>\n
About 193 of the nocturnal insects were released from \u014ctorohanga Kiwi House. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Haigh said support of Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto and Ng\u0101ti Koroki Kahukura, who regarded the w\u0113t\u0101 as a taonga species, was vital for the captive breeding programme.<\/p>\n
“To have our iwi partners providing guidance on the appropriate tikanga for the handover of the w\u0113t\u0101 from Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto to Ng\u0101ti Koroki Kahukura demonstrates the partnership which has made this translocation possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The w\u0113t\u0101 were released by experienced w\u0113t\u0101 handlers into pre-selected locations across Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 200 critically endangered M\u0101hoenui giant w\u0113t\u0101 have been released today from \u014ctorohanga Kiwi House to Sanctuary Mountain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1313,64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-103133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}