Southland Museum and Art Gallery tuatara curator Lindsay Hazley started out 27 years ago with two animals. She now has a colony of 80 captive bred Tuataras with no where to go.

From Otago Daily Times:

The museum's tuatara surplus is the result of Mr Hazley overcoming many captive-breeding problems and he is getting 20-30 fertile eggs each year.

"With the new acrylic roof I got from Germany that let's all the UV (ultra-violet light) through, I'm getting a 90% survival rate rather than a 90% failure.

"I'm sending eggs to Victoria University from now on because I'm saturated."

Mr Hazley would like to liberate some of his animals on a tiny pest-free island in Foveaux Strait.

"It would be just [big] enough to put a few animals on to see how they are going to do."

Mr Hazley said he had been talking to interested parties about the possibility for 20 years but there had been little progress.

He believed it was not the museum's job to make the project happen.

"It's more of a Doc or iwi thing. Somebody else needs to drive it. I can breed the animals for it but no-one's out there wanting to drive it."

This is an amazing chance at recovery for a species that needs the help badly. To read the full article, click here.