The four animals ranged in size from 11 to 12cm and weighed between five and nine grams, meaning they were likely less than a year old.
Council parks and recreation manager Caroline Rain said the enclosure had been thoroughly searched prior to the tuatara being moved in February 2023, meaning the babies had likely been in egg-form at the time.
“We did everything you’d expect us to have done to ensure that there wasn’t anything there,” she said. “They were genuinely just missed, they were not seen.”
Yeah I saw the mention of baby mice getting through. I’d guess having a fence that keeps them out is the first step, then they could probably reduce numbers with trapping, which may be able to wipe them out eventually. Not sure if there is an issue with say tuatara crawling into mouse traps?