Numerology 

Ancient tuatara lizard. Animals and plants of New Zealand - the unique nature of the country. Reproduction and offspring

Rat is a mammal belonging to the class of rodents. Rats are one of the most common animals on the entire planet! We fight them, we fear them, but what do we know about rats other than that they are pests? Today we will look at these rodents from the other side and find out how they live, what they eat, and how a rat differs from a mouse. Let's start with where the rat lives and what is its lifestyle.

Where does the gray rat live and what does it look like

gray rat has an oval body shape with a length of 8 to 30 cm, weight of 37 to 420 gr. Muzzle rats pointed and long, but the eyes and ears are small and well proportioned. In most species rats, the tail is almost bald, in some individuals it is covered with a small amount of wool (only in black rats thick hair on the tail). The length of the tail, as a rule, is equal to the length of the body, of course, there are also short-tailed individuals. The teeth of the rat are in dense rows, and only 2 pairs are elongated. Their teeth are so strong that they can chew through almost anything, even hard materials and bricks. Wool rats dense and thick, gray color.

Where does the rat live?

Rats excellent swimmers and runners. In case of danger, it can accelerate to 10 km / h. On the day it runs from 8 to 17 km. In water gray rat can stay for three days, completely without damage to their own health. Her eyesight is poor, so she constantly turns her head, and sees everything in gray tones. But hearing and smell are 5+. The life expectancy of a rodent is 1.5-3 years, at home life increases almost 2 times. Rats are common in Russia, in Europe, in America, in Australia, in Asia, in New Guinea, on the islands of the Malay Archipelago. They are not, except perhaps only in Antarctica.

Gray rat lifestyle


In the wild, rats a huge number of enemies: people, cats, dogs, ferrets, birds, hedgehogs, pigs, snakes. They live both in groups and alone. There can be about 100 individuals in a colony, with a main male and two main females. One such group covers about 2 thousand square meters. gray rat pasyuk prefers to live near ponds with dense vegetation, where she can dig a hole up to 5 meters. Also, they live in sewers, in a landfill, in a basement, in parks and even in the desert. The most important thing is the availability of food and water.

NUTRITION AND DIFFERENCES OF RATS FROM MICE

What does a gray rat eat

Rats are omnivorous eat 25 grams per day. She can fast for about 3-4 days, but this period is too difficult, because she does not tolerate hunger strike well. Lack of water rat tolerates much worse, because it is necessary to consume 30-35 ml per day. water. Rats practically do not stock food. They eat food of animal origin, because they need protein, and of plant origin, like plants, cereals, nuts, chestnuts. Also, they feed on small rodents, mollusks, frogs, newts, toads, chicks, bird eggs, even flora and fauna waste.

What is the difference between a rat and a mouse


1. Rats omnivores, eat both plants and meat

2. Rat reaches a size of 30 cm when the mouse is no larger than 20 cm

3. Rat can weigh about 900 grams, the mouse is not more than 50 grams

4. Muzzle rats elongated, triangular in mice

5. Eyes rats smaller than the eyes of a mouse

6. Wool rats hard to the touch, in mice smooth and soft

7. Rats much more careful than mice

8. Rat can jump 2 meters high, the mouse is only 40-50cm

9. Mice are cowardly rodents, which is why they are so rarely seen, which cannot be said about rats

10. Rat explores the territory before choosing a house or eating

VIDEO: ABOUT THE GRAY RAT

IN THIS VIDEO YOU WILL SEE HOW A GRAY RAT LOOKES AND LEARN A LOT OF INTERESTING ABOUT IT

In the article, I will talk about giant rats and the mysterious graskat, which caused a stir on the Internet after an interview with a football player from the Belarusian Dynamo.

What is the largest rat in the world

Wild rats are carriers of deadly viral diseases.

The direct danger emanating from rodents for many centuries has developed a persistent attitude that has settled in the human brain.

People experience fear and dislike towards small animals, which is explained by protective mechanisms activated by genetic memory. Animals have become the heroes of many urban legends and compete with the famous alligators living in the sewers. Despite the fact that most of these stories are pure fiction, some rodents really amaze with their parameters.

The hero of the article is the Grascat, a giant cane rat (grascutter cane rat) from Africa, whose weight is at least 6 kg.

Rats are able to adapt to their lifestyle and are not particularly picky in living conditions.

Description and characteristics of graskata

Graskata living in captivity can reach 10 kg in weight and 60 cm in length, excluding the tail.

The rodent has:

  • tiny rounded ears hidden under the coat;
  • short and flat nose;
  • developed hind limbs, exceeding the size of the front;
  • three-toed paws;
  • bristly, but smooth black-brown fur.

(gray) weighs no more than 400 g, and its body size reaches no more than 25 cm.

The life expectancy of the grascat in the wild is no more than 3 years, and careful care can extend the period up to 4 years.


 Pasyuk, wild rat

Reed rodents reach sexual maturity after 6-12 months. Every year the female produces 2 litters containing 1-4 rats. Babies are born already sighted and after a few days show independence.

Rodent nutrition

Large animals are herbivores.

His diet consists of:

  • yams;
  • nuts;
  • elephant grass;
  • corn;
  • sugar cane, which gave the name;
  • wheat;
  • fallen fruit;
  • millet;
  • greens;
  • cassava;
  • millet.

Because of the love for crops, the rodent is a dangerous pest that ruins crops.

As a protection for plantations, local residents use the main enemies of the graskata - mongooses and pythons.


 The main protector from rats is a reticulated python

Habitat and purpose of graskata

The animal is distributed throughout the continent except for:

  • Sahara;
  • southwestern part of South Africa;
  • parts of the eastern countries beyond South Sudan.

Reeds love a humid and warm climate, so they live in marshy places or dense reed thickets located next to water bodies.

The reproduction of rodents occurs during the rainy season, which lasts from October to the beginning of winter in the western part of the continent and all summer in the south.

Thanks to the irrigation of waterless lands, animals received an additional source of food in the form of human plantations.

Graskats are characterized by:

  • activity at night;
  • love for water, expressed in a skillful swimming technique;
  • living in grass nests;
  • formation of groups with 1 male, several females and young animals.

 Usually people don't really like these animals and consider them scary.

Rat on a plate

Let's get back to the football player. When Joel Fameye was asked to name the exotic dishes of his country, he named grascata without hesitation.

Africans consider cane pests a real delicacy.

Rodent meat is valued for its high protein content and low fat percentage, and also has a delicate and light taste.

Graskata is the name of the dish, not the animal itself.


 Grascata - fried or stewed rats

For a fried animal, you will have to pay at least $ 100.

Other types of giant rats

Having understood that graskata is a dish, it is important to mention the family affiliation.

Reed is a rodent, but not every rodent is a rat. For example, the capybara is the largest representative of the rodent order, but it has nothing to do with rats.

Scientists distinguish reeds into a separate genus - Thryonomys.

The real representatives of the rat family, which are large in size, include:

  1. Bamboo. It weighs 4kg and reaches 50cm in length. Lives in China, Southeast Asia and Cambodia. It feeds on bamboo and is considered a delicacy.
  2. Gambian. It weighs 1.5 kg and reaches 90 cm in length with the tail. Lives in Africa. It is distinguished by poor eyesight and a subtle sense of smell, which allows detecting mines after training. It is similar to the African hamster due to the presence of cheek pouches that allow you to hide the grains during transportation.
  3. Bosavi. It weighs 1.5 kg and reaches 82 cm. Lives in New Guinea and is not at all afraid of people. The animal was discovered in 2009 thanks to the filming of a documentary, which took place in the crater of the volcano.

 bamboo rat
Gambian
Bosavi

In conclusion, I note that in Russian realities you can not worry about the invasion of giant rats and sleep peacefully.

Reasonable fears about a possible infection take place, and real phobias, leading to indescribable horror at the sight of a domestic pasyuk, need psychological help.

Family Mouse (Muridae).

Other names are common, brown or barn rat. The gray rat inhabits almost the entire globe, except for the polar regions and deserts. The homeland of gray rats is considered to be the region of the Asian mainland within East China. Stronger and larger than the black rat, this species took over the territories inhabited by the black rat and grew in numbers to the same extent that its rival declined.

In Belarus, it is distributed throughout the territory. However, its distribution requires clarification. According to Serzhanin, it is found in Polissya much more often than in other parts of the republic. The nominal subspecies R. n. lives in the republic. norvegicus.

One of the largest rats. Body length 17.7-27.3 cm; tail 15.5-22.9 cm; feet 3.3-4.5 cm, ear 1.6-2.1 cm. Body weight 275-580 g. Tail, as a rule, shorter than the body (on average 75% of its length), hair between them. The muzzle is blunt, wide, the ears are short, bent forward, do not reach the back corner of the eyes.

The coat is rather dense, the fur is hard, with long guard hairs. Coloration is quite variable. The dorsal side of the body is reddish-brown with variously expressed gray and ocher shades, the chest and belly are lighter, grayish-whitish with a brown tint. There are also lighter specimens.

Sheds twice a year (spring and autumn).

It differs from the black rat in a shorter tail (shorter than the body). The ear, bent forward, does not reach the posterior corner of the eye.

The gray rat is a typical synanthropus, perfectly adapted to living in anthropogenic landscapes. It is found mainly in residential and non-residential buildings of a person. Settles in cellars, attics, farms, stables, in summer often in gardens, parks, especially in cluttered areas. For the summer time, it is evicted from human settlements to nearby vegetable gardens, wastelands, river valleys.

At the same time, a certain part of gray rats lives year-round outside settlements, in open biotopes, mainly along the banks of rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, reservoirs, canals and ditches. Showing conservatism in the use of the territory (the size of individual plots reaches 15-20 m²), rats are nevertheless prone to movement in case of overpopulation, destruction of burrows, and stress. Often movement is associated with the search for a partner. In addition, the gray rat is characterized by seasonal movements.

Vicious and quarrelsome, behaves like a real predator. Gray rats live in families or clans, observing, as is customary in many animals, a strict hierarchy. Male rats show aggression towards strangers, but never attack unfamiliar females. Females, in turn, behave differently with leaders and low-ranking males, preferring high-ranking males. This contributes to the consolidation and transmission from generation to generation of traits important for the survival of the species.

Rats lead a predominantly twilight lifestyle and leave their shelters to feed from 19 pm to 8 am. They are most active between 20 and 22 hours. With a high number, as well as in places where they are not very disturbed, rats are active in the daytime as well. They are great masters of all kinds of movements, they run quickly and dexterously, sometimes at a speed of about 10 km / h, they can jump up to 80 cm, they swim skillfully, swimming quite confidently for about 2 km, they dive well and climb perfectly on ropes, pipes, trees . Having exhausted themselves, gray rats quickly come to their senses, unlike black ones. They are able to dig deep (up to 70 cm) burrows with a length of up to 5 m, while throwing a large amount of earth out of the burrows. Rats have well-developed hearing and sense of smell, especially hearing, but their eyesight does not fail them. A certain cunning allows them to avoid various dangers.

The gray rat is the most omnivorous mammal after humans and easily switches from one type of food to another. People themselves provide these rodents with food, most often in the form of waste and pet food. Under natural conditions, the rat feeds on fish, molluscs, frogs, mouse-like rodents, as well as various plants, giving preference to animal food. It feeds on grain in the fields. In some places, rats do not store food for future use, in others they accumulate solid reserves.

Rats often arrange a common nest for themselves and keep warm in it, curling up close to each other. If one of them dies, then the rest are immediately taken for it, first gnawing the skull and eating the brain, and then the whole corpse, leaving only the bones and the skin.

Lives in burrows and various cavities. Under natural conditions, it digs simple holes itself.

As a building material for nests, gray rats most often use paper finely crumbled with their teeth, tow, and plant debris. Curiously, in carcass cold rooms where no such materials are available, rats manage to build nests from tendons gnawed from the carcasses. Rats not only survive, but also breed well at temperatures ranging from -11°C (in refrigerators) to 45°C (under steam boilers).

Reproduction of the gray rat lasts almost the entire year, but is most intensive in spring and summer. During the year, one female can bring two, less often 3 litters (sometimes up to 6), with an average of 8 (from 1 to 17) cubs in each. Under adverse conditions, the gray rat brings 1-2 litters per year, or from 6 to 20 cubs. In practice, this potential is realized by less than 50%. The rest is a kind of population reserve. Pregnancy lasts 21-22 days. Rat pups grow quickly and at the age of 3-4 months (sometimes earlier) they can breed.

The gray rat is one of the most dangerous pests, eating and spoiling not only food products, but also making skin, textiles, furniture, electrical wiring, and plastic products unusable. She is a dangerous carrier of the plague and about three dozen other diseases dangerous to humans.

Under natural conditions, the gray rat lives up to 2-3 years.

It is quite easy to tame a rat. Unlike guinea pigs and mice, rats do not emit a foul odor.

Nobody knows when people first got acquainted with rats, this animal always lives next to us.

The rat belongs to mammals, to the order - rodents, suborder - murine. The most common animal is the rat on the planet.

The appearance of the rat, description and characteristics

The body of the rat is oval and stocky. The body of the animal is from 8 cm to 30 cm, weighing up to 500 g, there are small ones weighing 37 grams.

The eyes and ears are small, the muzzle is sharp and elongated. Is the tail longer than the size of the body of a rat, without hair or covered with fine hair? invisible to the human eye (a variety of black rats has a tail with a thick coat of hair). In the world there is a variety of short-tailed rodents.

The teeth of the rat are located tightly to each other in rows and are designed for chewing food. These animals are omnivorous, differ from other predators in the absence of fangs and diastema - this is the area on the gums where there are no teeth.

There are no tooth roots, so growth occurs continuously throughout the life of the rat. For convenience, they need to constantly grind their teeth otherwise she will not be able to close her mouth.

The teeth are strong with hard yellow enamel, which makes it easy to gnaw through concrete, cement and various hard metals.

The body of the rodent is covered with thick, dense hair from guard hairs. The color scheme of the color is varied, gray with different shades of dark or light, red, orange and even yellow.

These amazing animals have movable toes on their paws, so they easily climb trees and prepare nests in hollows for living.

Rats are very active and mobile animals run 17 km a day, jump up to 1 meter in height. They swim well, are not afraid of water and can fish.

Rats often turn their heads in different directions, because they have a small viewing angle, they see the world around them in gray tones.

Hearing functions perfectly, rats distinguish sounds with a frequency of up to 40 kHz (humans up to 20 kHz).

Life expectancy from 1 year to 3 years. Under laboratory conditions, rats can live twice as long.

The difference between rats and mice

Rats and mice are representatives of the same suborder, but they differ significantly in appearance and behavior.

The body of a mouse is small, up to 20 cm, weighing up to 50 grams, rats are twice as large, they are dense and muscular, weighing up to 900 grams.

Pronounced distinctive shapes of the head and eyes, in mice it is triangular and slightly flattened with large eyes, in rats the muzzle is elongated with small eyes.

A strong body, powerful fingers on the paws allow rats to jump high up to 1 meter, mice cannot do such tricks.

Mice are a cowardly animal and are afraid to get into people's eyes, but rats are not embarrassed, they can protect themselves. There are many cases where they attacked a person.

Rats are omnivorous, eating meat and plant foods. Mice, on the contrary, prefer cereal crops, seeds more.

Rat habitat and lifestyle

Large rats live all over the world, except for Antarctica and the polar regions. They live in groups, rarely live alone.

Most often, groups consist of hundreds of individuals with one male at the head and two or three females. The territory of residence for each group has its own length of up to 2 thousand square meters.

The diet depends on the habitat. Omnivorous rats eat approximately 25 grams of food per day, but without water it is difficult for them to have a daily moisture requirement of up to 35 ml.

Gray rats mainly feed on protein foods of animal origin, small rodents, toads, and chicks.

Black rats prefer food of plant origin: green plants, nuts, fruits, cereals.

Rats are wary of pigs, hedgehogs, ferrets, dogs and cats - these are the main land enemies. Among birds, the rodents of the hawk, the owl, the eagle and the kite are feared and wary.

Reproduction and lifespan of rats

There is no mating season for rats, they can breed all year round. But the peak of sexual activity comes in the spring-summer. The female mates with different males, the pregnancy in rats lasts up to 24 days, the lactating female carries the cubs up to 34 days.

In advance, rats prepare nests, for the birth of offspring they cover the bottom with soft grass, cloth, paper. The cubs appear naked and blind. At the birth of dead rats, the mother devours them, the number at birth can be up to 20.

The male can eat all the offspring, if there are non-viable rat pups, he does not take part in caring for them. The female, on the contrary, conducts reverent care, feeds with milk, licks the babies and cleans the nest from debris.

After 17 days, little rat pups open their eyes, and a month later they lead a full-fledged lifestyle on their own. After 3-4 months, puberty occurs, they can multiply 6 months after birth. Life expectancy up to two years.

Gray rats breed up to 8 times a year, but black ones only in the warm season. To date, experts have calculated that there are 2 rats per person in the world.

Why are rats dangerous?

Rats are a problem for all mankind. They gnaw through the walls in the basements of houses, sewer pipes, harm electrical mains, damage crops.

Rats are carriers of more than 20 infectious diseases, such as leptospirosis, plague, salmonellosis, pseudotuberculosis and others. Many are dangerously fatal to human life.

It is difficult to exterminate rats with chemicals, because the animal's body quickly adapts to the poison and develops a protective immunity to toxins.

Rats are a pet

Rats are the perfect pets. They are quickly tamed to a person, they recognize their owner by the face.

Neat and clean animals do not require special care. They will give their owner a lot of funny moments, it is very interesting to watch them.

But the owner of a domestic rat should not forget that this is a social animal and it is difficult for them to live alone. A rat definitely needs a pair, otherwise a mental disorder may develop.

Variety of rats, name and photo

There are about 70 species of rats in the world, most of which are poorly understood, below are the common types of rodents with a brief description and photo of the rat.

The gray rat (pasyuk) is one of the large varieties up to 25 cm long, the tail is not taken into account. Weight from 140 grams to 390 grams, with a wide elongated muzzle. The coat of young animals is gray with age, becoming orange in color. It lives near water, in dense vegetation and digs holes up to 5 meters.

The black rat is smaller than the gray rat, with a much smaller muzzle and rounded ears. Body length up to 22 cm, weight about 300 grams. A significant difference of this species of rodents is the tail, which is densely covered with hair and 4-5 times longer than the size of the body.

Lives in Asia, Africa and Europe. For a long time it can live without water, therefore it lives in arid places. The coat is black with a green tint.

The small rat differs from its counterparts in size. Body length up to 15 cm maximum with body weight up to 80 grams. It has a brown coat color, a sharp muzzle and inconspicuous small ears. The tail is as long as the body, without signs of hair. Lives in Southeast Asia.

The long-haired rat is distinguished by its long hair and high activity. Males grow up to 18 cm, and females up to 16 cm in length. The tail is smaller in size from the body by 4-5 cm. Habitat in arid deserts.

The Turkestan rat lives in China, Nepal, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan. The coat is red, the abdomen is pale yellow, the body length is up to 23 cm. This variety is similar to gray, but has a denser body and a broad head in size.

Black-tailed rat or rabbit. It has an average size of up to 22 cm, weight about 190 grams.

An interesting feature of this type of tail is a tuft of wool at the tip.

The dorsum is gray and brown with prominent black hairs.

They live in Australia and New Guinea mainly in eucalyptus forests, dense grass and shrubs. They are active at night and hide in burrows during the day.

Interesting and informative facts about the life of rats

In India, there is a Karni Mata temple where rats are revered, cared for and protected. In case of violation of the rules for caring for a sacred animal and killing it, this person is obliged to bring a golden statuette in the form of a rat to the temple.

In some US states, hitting a rat with a baseball bat is illegal and carries a $1,000 fine.

In Asian and African countries, rats are considered a worthy delicacy for a festive dinner. Rat meat is considered a delicacy.

In a year, a gray rat eats up to 12 kg of various cereal products. Experts have calculated that about 6 kg of the harvest of one farmer is spent annually on the food of one rat.

The most ancient reptile surviving from the time of the dinosaurs is the three-eyed lizard tuatara, or tuatara (lat. ) - a species of reptiles from the order of beakheads.

For a man of the uninitiated tuatara ( ) is simply a large, impressive-looking lizard. Indeed, this animal has greenish-gray scaly skin, short strong paws with claws, a crest on the back, consisting of flat triangular scales, like agamas and iguanas (the local name for hatteria is tuatara- comes from the Maori word for "spiky"), and a long tail.

However, the hatteria is not a lizard at all. The features of its structure are so unusual that a special detachment was established for it in the class of reptiles - Rhynchocephalia, which means "beak-headed" (from the Greek "rinhos" - beak and "kephalon" - head; an indication of the premaxilla bending down).

True, this did not happen immediately. In 1831, the famous zoologist Gray, having only the skulls of this animal, gave him the name Sphenodon. After 11 years, a whole copy of the tuatara fell into his hands, which he described as another reptile, giving it a name. Hatteria punctata and referring to lizards from the agam family. It wasn't until 30 years later that Gray established that Sphenodon And Hatteria- same. But even before that, in 1867, it was shown that the similarity of the hatteria with lizards is purely external, and in terms of the internal structure (primarily the structure of the skull), the tuatara stands completely apart from all modern reptiles.

And then it turned out that the tuatara, now living exclusively on the islands of New Zealand, is a “living fossil”, the last representative of the once common group of reptiles that lived in Asia, Africa, North America and even Europe. But all other beakheads died out in the early Jurassic, and the tuatara managed to exist for almost 200 million years. It is amazing how little its structure has changed over this vast period of time, while lizards and snakes have reached such a variety.

A very interesting feature of the tuatara is the presence of a parietal (or third) eye, located on the crown of the head between two real eyes *. Its function has not yet been elucidated. This organ has a lens and a retina with nerve endings, but is devoid of muscles and any adaptations for accommodation, or focusing. In a tuatara cub that has just hatched from an egg, the parietal eye is clearly visible - like a bare speck surrounded by scales that are arranged like flower petals. Over time, the "third eye" is overgrown with scales, and in adult tuatara it can no longer be seen. As experiments have shown, the tuatara cannot see with this eye, but it is sensitive to light and heat, which helps the animal to regulate body temperature, dosing the time spent in the sun and in the shade.

As excavations show, not so long ago, tuatara were found in abundance on the main islands of New Zealand - North and South. But the Maori tribes, who settled in these places in the XIV century, exterminated the Tuatars almost completely. An important role was played in this by the dogs and rats that came along with the people. True, some scientists believe that the hatteria died due to changes in climatic and environmental conditions. Until 1870, she was still found on the North Island, but at the beginning of the 20th century. has survived only on 20 small islands, of which 3 are located in the Cook Strait, and the rest - off the northeast coast of the North Island.

The view of these islands is gloomy - cold leaden waves break on the rocky shores shrouded in mist. The already sparse vegetation was badly damaged by sheep, goats, pigs and other wild animals. Now, every single pig, cat, and dog has been removed from the islands where Tuatara populations have survived, and the rodents have been exterminated. All these animals caused great damage to tuatarams, eating their eggs and juveniles. Of the vertebrates on the islands, only reptiles and numerous sea birds remained, arranging their colonies here.

An adult male tuatara reaches a length (including tail) of 65 cm and weighs about 1 kg. Females are smaller and almost twice as light. These reptiles feed on insects, spiders, earthworms and snails. They love water, often lie in it for a long time and swim well. But the tuatara runs badly.

Hatteria is a nocturnal animal, and unlike many other reptiles, it is active at relatively low temperatures - +6 o ... + 8 o C - this is another of the interesting features of its biology. All life processes in the hatteria are slow, the metabolism is low. Between two breaths usually takes about 7 seconds, but the tuatara can remain alive without taking a single breath for an hour.

Winter time - from mid-March to mid-August - tuatara spend in burrows, falling into hibernation. In spring, females dig special small burrows, where with the help of their paws and mouth they carry a clutch of 8-15 eggs, each of which is about 3 cm in diameter and is enclosed in a soft shell. From above, the masonry is covered with earth, grass, leaves or moss. The incubation period lasts about 15 months, which is much longer than that of other reptiles.

Tuatara grows slowly and reaches puberty no earlier than 20 years. That is why we can assume that she belongs to the number of outstanding centenarians of the animal world. It is possible that the age of some males exceeds 100 years.

What else is this animal famous for? Tuatara is one of the few reptiles with a real voice. Her sad, hoarse cries can be heard on foggy nights or when someone bothers her.

Another amazing feature of the tuatara is its coexistence with gray petrels, which nest on the islands in self-dug holes. Hatteria often settles in these holes, despite the presence of birds there, and sometimes, apparently, ruins their nests - judging by the finds of chicks with bitten heads. So such a neighborhood, apparently, does not bring great joy to the petrels, although usually birds and reptiles coexist quite peacefully - the tuatara prefers other prey, which it goes in search of at night, and in the daytime the petrels fly into the sea for fish. When the birds migrate, the tuatara hibernates.

The total number of living tuatara is now about 100,000 individuals. The largest colony is located on Stephens Island in the Cook Strait - 50,000 tuatars live there on an area of ​​​​3 km 2 - an average of 480 individuals per 1 ha. On small - less than 10 hectares - islets, populations of tuatara do not exceed 5,000 individuals. The New Zealand government has long recognized the value of the amazing reptile for science, and there has been a strict conservation regime on the islands for about 100 years. You can visit them only with special permission and strict liability is established for violators. In addition, tuatara are successfully bred at the Sydney Zoo in Australia.

Tuatara are not eaten and their skins are not in commercial demand. They live on remote islands, where there are neither people nor predators, and are well adapted to the conditions existing there. So, apparently, nothing threatens the survival of these unique reptiles at present. They can safely while away their days on secluded islands to the delight of biologists, who, among other things, are trying to find out the reasons why the tuatara did not disappear in those distant times when all its relatives died out.

Perhaps we should learn from the people of New Zealand and how to protect their natural resources. As Gerald Durrell wrote, “Ask any New Zealander why they guard the tuatara. And they will consider your question simply inappropriate and say that, firstly, this is a one-of-a-kind creature, secondly, zoologists are not indifferent to it, and, thirdly, if it disappears, it will disappear forever. Can you imagine such an answer by a Russian resident to the question of why guard, say, a Caucasian crossroads? Here I can't. Maybe that's why we don't live like in New Zealand?

V.V. Bobrov

The tuatara is an endangered relic species and is protected by law; only a few zoos keep them in captivity.

Until 1989, it was believed that there was only one species of these reptiles, but Charles Dougherty, a professor at the University of Victoria (Wellington), discovered that in fact there are two of them - the tuatara ( ) and the tuatara of Brother Island ( Sphenodon guntheri).