The giant weta, one of the heaviest insects in the world, is being given a leg-up in its battle for survival.
Auckland Zoo is taking part in a captive breeding program, being run by New Zealand's department of conservation, that aims to repopulate pest-free islands in the Hauraki Gulf with the nationally endangered creature.
This week the zoo released 150 giant weta on Motuora Island, and another 300 will go into the wild later this year.
Don McFarlane, the leader of Auckland Zoo's ectotherm team, says wetas were once found across northern New Zealand.
"The weta is legendary not just on the basis of its size. And it is a real whopper ... its character, its colouration, its utter weirdness - it's entirely individual," he said.
The giant weta, also known as weta punga, routinely weighs more than an average sparrow, although the heaviest one ever recorded was 71 grams, double a sparrow's weight.
It sheds its exoskeleton 10 times before reaching adulthood.
Once mature, a weta's body alone measures 10 centimetres, and it has long, spiny legs it can throw into the air and bring down with lightning speed.
"The weta very cleverly hides itself in a small crevice with only its legs visible, which means if you are going after a weta and face its legs you'll know better afterward," Mr McFarlane said.
But those formidable skills have been no match for introduced predators such as cats, rats and stoats, which eliminated the giant weta from all but Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf.
All offspring in the recovery program have been bred from six male and six female giant weta collected from Little Barrier two years ago.
"The zoo's done extraordinarily well in producing 150 for this release," department of conservation scientific advisor Chris Green said.
Mr Green says giant weta produce one of the largest faecal pellets of any living insect and play an important role in restoring the native ecosystem.
"Weta browse the foliage and their droppings help to fertilise plants so that it creates a cycle of nutrients and that helps the plants grow, which helps give the weta even better food to feed on," he said.