With a face only a mother could love - a baby tuatara was captured on film as it hatched out of its egg at Victoria University of Wellington.
Twenty three eggs were incubated in captivity this year, as a part of an intensive conservation recovery plan between Victoria University, theDepartment of Conservation (DoC) and local Mana Whenua Ngati Manuhiri, to help save the tuatara from extinction.
Captured using a low-cost microcomputer and infrared camera, the tuatara took seven hours to hatch and was the last of the twenty three eggs.