Why Homo sapiens are Auckland Zoo's priority species

Auckland Zoo is involved in dozens of conservation projects, but one species is paramount – us. Naomii Seah visits the Zoo to find out why.
On a mild winter's night, by the light of the full moon, a group of Auckland Zoo staff and mana whenua pick their way carefully through the thick native bush. Beneath their boots, the damp undergrowth gives off a rich, earthy aroma of rotting bark and leaf litter. Spying a marker tied to an ancient pōhutakawa, a member of the group pauses, and gingerly holds a clear container to the craggy bark. From it a brown, unassuming insect peeks out then scurries onto the trunk. It's about an inch long. While it's hard to imagine, this young wētāpunga will one day be as big as a mouse.
These expeditions have been running for over a decade across eight pest-free islands in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Islands as part of Auckland Zoo's wētāpunga breed-and-release programme. It's just one of the Zoo's many conservation initiatives. As the Zoo sees it though, the most important creatures on this trip aren't just the hundreds of tiny wētāpunga about to be released – it's the people.
Kevin Buley is the director of Auckland Zoo. 'The fundamental purpose of the Zoo is to reconnect people with the environment, with wildlife and with themselves – what it means to be human, and part of the environment, not apart from it,' he says.
Since 2018, Kevin has led the Zoo through huge changes, both physically and philosophically, driven in part by the impacts of the pandemic.
'Covid was like the moment the scales dropped from our eyes, and we saw how the Zoo could fundamentally improve the wellbeing of people that visited us.'
Dozens, if not hundreds of papers have now shown a connection between time spent in nature and improved wellbeing. But with increasing urbanisation – over 80% of New Zealanders now live in urban areas – the disconnect between communities and te taiao (the natural world) is only growing. As an organisation, the Zoo sees itself as a vital conduit between Auckland communities and the environment. This realisation, Kevin says, necessitated a significant change to the kaupapa of the Zoo. Namely, the Zoo wanted to reposition itself as distinctively of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and strengthen its relationship with Te Ao Māori.
The Zoo has been working alongside iwi Māori to weave indigenous concepts through the zoo experience and into its wider programming. Incorporating Te Ao Māori is one way the Zoo hopes to continue building a more holistic approach to wildlife conservation. This holistic approach speaks to what Kevin sees as the ultimate purpose of a zoo – to help build a future where the classic 'just-in-time' sticking-plaster approach to conservation work is no longer required.
What would that future look like though? As Kevin sees it, it's a future where we have successfully renegotiated our relationship with the natural environment and are living sustainably as part of it. It's a future where we no longer have to fight an endless battle against biodiversity loss and species extinction. Think, he says, of communities, corporates and governments all putting the health of te taiao first in their decision-making.
'If our ultimate goal is to help people tune back into nature, to have humans as a species living at one with the planet, then first we've got to support people's wellbeing. We can't ask people to recycle, to use sustainable palm oil, to eat sustainable fish if their day-to-day wellbeing is not in a great place,' says Kevin.
The evolving role of zoos is something Dr. Sarah Thomas, head of conservation advocacy and engagement at Auckland Zoo, spends a lot of time thinking about.
'How do we change how we think about being a zoo to being a community-serving cultural organisation? Raising up and giving equal credit to the way we serve our communities is just as important as our conservation fieldwork.'
Post-Covid, Sarah noticed how alienated communities felt from each other and the environment. In many ways, she says, we are still dealing with the impacts of Covid's social isolation and economic fallout. In this atmosphere, Sarah and the Zoo recognised the need to walk alongside the community. The team started a programme which gifted thousands of tickets to community groups. This removed the financial barrier and opened the Zoo up to them as a place for repair, recovery and respite.
'The passion that I have is [trying to understand] how we can serve our communities to feel good and function well, so we have a society that's thriving here in Aotearoa,' Sarah says.
'We know that there's a lot of lonely people in Auckland. All the stats are there to say people are struggling, whether that's post-Covid or just in the current environmental, societal state. So, for me, having the Zoo as te pā hono – a place of connection, is like a beacon of hope.'
By looking after wellbeing, and addressing community needs, the team hopes to enable a greater, long-term change in how we take care of ourselves and our environment. Part of that means being an accessible gateway to wildlife and te taiao. Many people may never visit the African savannah, the Southeast Asian rainforest or even Auckland's predator-free offshore islands. But that shouldn't preclude communities from feeling connections to those places.
In Te Ao Māori, the wētāpunga is known as the god of ugly things. It's a reputation that's contributed to the wētāpunga being maligned and overlooked. Just over a decade ago, the last remaining population was isolated to Te Hauturu-o-Toi (Little Barrier Island). Now though, through Auckland Zoo's programme, which was built on previous work by DOC and Butterfly Creek, wētāpunga populations have been established on eight additional islands. It's been so successful that Richard Gibson, Auckland Zoo's head of animal care and conservation, says the programme will wrap up soon.
'We're going to be ending the wētāpunga programme very soon because we've done it. We've transformed that animal's risk of extinction.'
It's feat that's extremely rare in conservation circles, where efforts can go on for decades just to conserve a few precious individuals. But for Richard and the rest of the team at the Zoo, this remarkable success is only the beginning.
'What we've done for the wētāpunga is given them a fighting chance for the next 100 to 200 years, but that's nothing in evolutionary terms.'
It's a hard reality that all conservationists must grapple with. Human intervention at the brink of extinction can only do so much. So how do we build a future where endangered species can reestablish themselves and truly thrive?
'One could argue that the true value of the wētāpunga breed and release programme is in its advocacy, education and awareness role,' says Richard.
'It doesn't matter how hard we try to save a species or a group of species, we're only able to do it in a very short timeframe. Their long-term persistence relies on us changing our relationship with the planet.'
Currently, the world is grappling with its sixth mass extinction. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the current species extinction rate is estimated to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than natural rates due to the impacts of human activity. Dozens of species are going extinct every day, and up to 50 percent of all species face extinction by 2050. In the face of this challenge, nothing less than a radical paradigm shift will make a real difference.
Regardless, the ripple effects of the wētāpunga programme have been far reaching. Over the past decade, it has attracted media coverage from both national and international outlets like Al Jazeera. This coverage has helped raise the profile of the wētāpunga. Breed-and-release expeditions, meanwhile, have directly engaged the wider community, from children to iwi groups and volunteers. These missions have generated new appreciation for the wētāpunga and inspired future invertebrate champions. Long after these Zoo bred wētāpunga die and become part of the forest floor themselves, these messages will continue to resonate, says Richard.
'Auckland Zoo is all about conservation, yes, but we see Homo sapiens – our staff, visitors, volunteers and wider communities – as vital to the present and future health of this planet.'
Kevin agrees and says: 'We sometimes hear people say that in a perfect world we wouldn't need zoos. But I disagree. In order for there to be a perfect world, we need good zoos that continue to nurture and support that human connection to nature, to wildlife and to each other.'

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