The Mystery of Auckland Museum's Rooftop Residents

When visiting the Museum to see the diversity of animal life, we find ourselves surrounded by the dead: skeletons, taxidermies, and animals preserved in alcohol. It is rare to find a living specimen at the Museum, although, in the 1930s to early 1940s, Tāmaki Paenga Hira had three of its very own living tuatara. However, these tuatara were not on display at the Museum but were kept under observation on the roof of the Museum by Mr. A. B. W. Powell, a conchologist at the Museum.

With little information about these elusive tuatara in the Museum’s records and often opposing information in past newspaper clippings, these tuatara are left shrouded in mystery.

From the information available from our records and past newspaper clippings, it could be pieced together that there were three tuatara living on the roof of the Museum, with one female having laid 4–5 eggs in 1942, which never reached the hatching stage. The names of two of the tuatara were ‘Mussolini’, who was introduced during a lecture given by Mr. R. A. Falla at the Auckland Museum in 1930, and ‘Percy’, who by 1935 had been under observation for 13 years.

It's not known exactly where these tuatara came from, and when they arrived at the Museum. It is noted in Museum records that two died in 1937, and the last in 1942. However, several past newspaper articles have suggested tuatara had been given to Auckland Museum in 1914, 1915, and in 1944. These included a one-eyed tuatara that was confiscated by the police in Paeroa, a tuatara found in a drain at the back of a house on Nelson St, and a young tuatara found by Albert Borough Council while excavating a drain in Fairlie Avenue, Auckland, however, this last individual cannot be found in the Museum’s records.

These inconsistencies and missing information on these tuatara highlight the importance of recording accurate data for the longevity of the specimen in our collections and to provide information for future generations, with every detail providing more colour to the rich story of each specimen or object. Inaccurate recording of data can cause issues further down the line with future cataloguers having to do extensive research into finding inconsistencies and trying to remedy these whilst avoiding potentially changing accurate data. This reinforces the need for better data collection and recording, which is not an uncommon problem in older records but even now some specimens are donated to the Museum with little information provided, lacking details on where and when it was found. Although we do love a mystery, we love to solve a mystery more.