It's home to a living fossil,
a relict,
barely changed for over 100 million years. The tuatara.
And half the world's population survive on this one island refuge.
During the reign of the dinosaurs,
the ancestors of the tuatara were everywhere.
They survived the cataclysm that killed off the dinosaurs,
but then couldn't compete with the mammals and died out.
Everywhere, except on what was then a mammal-free New Zealand.
Unlike mammals,
tuatara live life in the slow lane.
Days can pass when they barely move a muscle.
Sometimes taking just one breath an hour.
They feed on wetas,
beetles and other invertebrates
but don't appear very good at catching them.
Even after millions of years of practice,
eye-mouth co-ordination is not what it could be.
"Survival of the fittest" just doesn't seem to apply here. “
The tuatara's survival,
first on New Zealand,
now on Stephens Island,
proves a point - islands are pretty safe places to be,
at least until invaded.