The skink habitat in Lizard Lane at Auckland Zoo now bears a high flood-water line. It’s an emotional signature of a flood that stopped a city.
The precious reptiles would have been submerged, had the team at Auckland Zoo not been so thorough in their flawless execution of a precautionary evacuation on Friday.
Evacuated animals included skinks, scheltopusiks and bearded dragons and two alligators.
As part of their day-to-day animal care, Zoo staff always take note of bad weather alerts – so teams were on site monitoring the situation throughout the day.
On Friday afternoon, as the normally placid Motions Creek which traverses the Zoo continued to rise, our Auckland Zoo teams began the relocation of reptiles from lower lying areas.
By early evening, the torrent overflowed the stone walls along the creek, with floodwaters 1.5 metres deep in places.
The lizards were given vet checks after a night in the Zoo hospital, and temporarily re-homed on site; while the alligators are in a ‘back of house’ holding facility until they can return to their normal habitat.
The second flood in the early hours of Wednesday morning saw a further rise in the level of Motions Creek, but this time the animals in lower lying areas were already safe in their alternative temporary homes.
Lizard Lane
How are the lizards and alligators now?
In an update today (Friday 3 February) the team at Auckland Zoo are happy to reassure Aucklanders that the native skinks and geckos, removed from their habitats at Te Wao Nui, are now back in their original habitats and appear unfazed by their temporary relocation.
The exotic lizards, also relocated before flood waters impacted Lizard Lane, are doing fine. They have settled into their alternative housing elsewhere in the Zoo, but are not visible to visitors. They will remain there until their habitats can be fully assessed for storm damage.
The alligators, Dixie and Tallulah, moved to alternative housing off-show, have settled well and are very interested in their new neighbours - a bunch of noisy parrots. They too will remain off-show until their habitat can be fully assessed for storm damage.
Where does our alligators’ habitat stop and the creek begin?
The big clean-up
After an extremely busy few days, zookeepers and facilities staff are still cleaning up – with a focus on animal welfare, and the safety of staff and public. The Zoo’s hay supplier has helped out, supplying vital feed for the coming weeks after losing supplies in the flooding.
Zoo Director Kevin Buley says the Zoo team has worked unbelievably hard during the flood and its aftermath: “Without the amazing response on Friday night as the flood waters rose and with the subsequent mammoth clean-up operation, things would have been a whole lot worse for our Zoo.
“I am so incredibly proud and grateful for the way in which so many of our people have gone above and beyond over the last few days – to protect and care for the animals, to make countless urgent repairs to the affected areas of the site, and to get the Zoo ready as quickly and as safely as possible for our partial reopening on Saturday,” he said.
High flood-water line shown at 1.5m on the skink habitat in Lizard Lane
Partial reopening 4 February
Everyone is welcome to experience Auckland Zoo again, after its temporary closure, on Saturday 4 February. In a partial reopening, everywhere except flood-affected areas (South America and Te Wao Nui) will be open for visitors. Learn more at aucklandzoo.co.nz.
Auckland Zoo is a Tātaki Auckland Unlimited facility which is among many impacted by the floods. Learn more about Auckland Council’s flood response initiatives here.
