An easy way to care for native wildlife
If you’ve got an old yoga mat lying around, you can make a shelter for your local wētā, insects and lizards. The mat acts like loose bark for small animals to shelter under.
Materials you’ll need:
- A yoga mat or piece of thin foam (around 40 x 50cm)
- Nails and a hammer
- Measuring tape
- Marker pen
- Scissors
- Good sized tree trunk
Step 1 – Measure
Measure out a piece of mat around 40 x 50 cm. Cut out each sheet. Most yoga mats will give you two or three sheets.
Step 2 – Find a tree
Any large tree will do, but our native animals prefer native trees (like mahoe, ngaio, fivefinger, manuka or totara).
Step 3 – Attach
Hammer a flat-head nail in each corner (flat heads will help the mat stay on) about 3cm from each edge. You might like to add a fifth nail in the middle of the mat to secure it. Don’t hammer too deep! Leave about 2cm of nails poking out from the trunk to give animals room to crawl into and feel safe.
What you might find:
It might take months for your residents to move in. You could have Wellington tree wētā or painted wētā, spiders, slugs or geckos. If you’re super lucky you might find the peripatus or velvet worm.
Our thanks to Joakim, lead for Te Motu Kairangi – Miramar Ecological Restoration, for creating this resource.
This video shows a jam-packed wētā hotel one of our team found on the Miramar Peninsula.