To safeguard Aotearoa’s unique wētā by engaging, empowering, and educating communities to help preserve their species diversity and restore their habitats
The Wētā Conservation Charitable Trust aims to preserve New Zealand’s biodiversity so that wētā, grasshoppers and allied insects (Orthoptera) and their natural habitat are protected to benefit present and future New Zealanders.
Video credit: Otago Polytechnic ADT3 branding class 2024
The most recent assessment of the threat classification status of New Zealand Orthoptera (2022) recognizes 162 taxa, not all of which have been described; 157 of these are native. Of 157 taxa, 18 are listed as “Threatened”, 27 are “At Risk”, 17 are “Data Deficient”. The main threat to all of our endangered Orthoptera is predation by introduced mammals, followed by habitat loss.
Learn more about our threatened species.
Our Projects
Monitoring of the Nationally Endangered giant wētā Deinacrida pluvialis across the Southern Alps, between Fiordland National Park and the Taramakau River.
Filling in any gaps in our knowledge of New Zealand’s orthopteran biodiversity by delimiting and describing new and unresolved taxa.
Latest News
“This is the story of how dedicated people prevented this giant of an insect from going extinct. It recounts the adventures they had, the joy of discovery and despondence of failure, the cooperation and support they had, the risks they took and the mistakes they made”.
Christchurch based high-performance outdoor gear makers Twin Needle sponsor the Wētā Conservation Charitable Trust with bum bags and GPS pouches
In two separate papers, a new species of tokoriro from Rakiura / Stewart Island and five species of ground wētā from New Zealand’s South Island have been described
