New Zealand earthquake: Wellington Zoo animals barely bat an eyelid during quake

Tuesday, 30 October 2018

The capybara is a relative of the guinea pig and was known as the largest rodents in the world.

While the capital shook during this afternoon's magnitude-6.2 earthquake, some of Wellington Zoo's newest residents barely bat an eyelid.

The shake, which centred 25 kilometres south-east of Taumaranui at 3.13pm on Tuesday, struck at a depth of 207km.

Civil Defence has ruled out any tsunami threat to the country, as a result of the shake.

Wellington Zoo has done a sweep of the grounds in Newtown and have reported all animals were 'doing okay' in a post on social networking site, Twitter.

* New Zealand quake hits North and South Island

Wellington Zoo welcomed seven new Capybara pups last week.

* What you need to know about Tuesday's earthquake

* Animation shows size of NZ earthquake

* Why Taumarunui dodged the earthquake only 25km away

* In pictures and video: NZ's earthquake

* Large aftershocks less likely due to quake depth

* The moment Parliament was hit by the earthquake

* Prince Harry, Meghan Markle unaffected by quake**

'The Capybara babies are also doing okay, and when our keepers checked in on them, they were fast asleep, none the wiser,' the post read.

The zoo welcomed seven newborn capybara pups to first-time mother Iapa last week.

The average litter size for capybara, the largest rodents in the world and relative to the guinea pig, was three to four, however it was possible to have a litter of up to eight.

While the zoo's animals came through unscathed, shoppers at Lower Hutt's Queensgate mall reported hearing screaming when the quake struck, with many shoppers and retailers fleeing stores.

At 4.30pm Tuesday, Metlink was reporting there were 20-minute delays on its public transport following the quake.

Wellington City Council and Te Papa also reported no damage to any of their buildings.

There have been no reports of injuries.