New Zealand’s heaviest insect rebounds from near extinction
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Conservationists in New Zealand successfully bred and released 11,214 wētāpunga, the world’s heaviest insect, into the wild over nearly two decades.
The wētāpunga, a large, flightless relative of crickets and grasshoppers, once thrived across northern New Zealand but nearly disappeared due to habitat loss and introduced predators like rats, cats, and stoats. By the mid-20th century, the species survived only on Little Barrier Island.
Researchers began a breeding program in 2008, collecting individuals from Little Barrier Island and establishing a colony near Auckland. They overcame challenges like the insect’s long nine-and-a-half-month egg incubation period and the tendency for larger juveniles to prey on smaller ones by developing communal nurseries and providing a protein-rich diet including fish flakes. Between 2010 and 2025, conservationists released the wētāpunga onto eight islands and two fenced mainland sanctuaries.
Monitoring of these released populations on Motuora and Tiritiri Matangi islands confirmed that the insects are now reproducing successfully and establishing self-sustaining populations, with some individuals representing fourth- and fifth-generation descendants of the original releases. As a result, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation reclassified the wētāpunga from nationally endangered to nationally increasing.
