When do tuataras mate?

Answer 1

Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) are reptiles that look like lizards but, often called living fossils, they are actually a different type of reptile that dates back to prehistoric periods over 200 million years ago. They eat insects like crickets, moths, beetles, and grasshoppers that they catch using their sticky fat tongues, and their diet also consists of other invertebrates like worms and snails. Additional foods in the Tuatara's diet are lizards, eggs, baby birds and smaller tuatara. They hatch from leathery-skinned eggs, and can grow to around 2 - 3 feet long (80 cm). The larger ones sometimes eat larger seabirds like petrels.

These nocturnal reptiles live on the islands off New Zealand, in burrows that they may dig themselves, but often take over from the burrowing petrels. They can have a lifespan as long as 60 years, and don't reach maturity until around 20 years old. Their numbers are reducing, and they are now considered vulnerable on the endangered species lists. They are preyed upon by rodents, pigs, and wild cats.

One of their most unique characteristics, besides their unique double row of teeth in the upper jaw, is their "third eye" called a pineal or parietal eye on top of their heads. Although this "eye" has a small lens and retina and is photoreceptive, it uses a different biochemical method of detecting light than normal vertebrates' rod cells or cone cells. The function is unknown and is under research. Tuatara have no external ears but are able to hear, and they retain some unusual features in their skeletons that may be evolutionary "left-overs" from fish.
the tuatra eats insects and birds.
The Tuatara's prey includes; beetles, crickets, and Spiders. Their diet also consists of frogs, lizards, bird's eggs and chicks.

Answer 2

Tuatara reproduce very slowly, taking ten to twenty years to reach sexual maturity. Mating occurs in midsummer; females mate and lay eggs once every four years.