There has been a veritable ‘plague’ of Long-Necked Turtles on the roads around here lately. Perhaps it is ‘nesting’ season. Yesterday I ‘rescued’ a couple for liberation in our dam to join a couple of local denizens who after all may be same-sex. It would be nice to have them breeding here.
We plan an extension to our water features on our farm over time so that we have over a dozen inter-connected dams/ponds with overhanging trees, nesting boxes & etc. Together with our fox-proof fences this should create a wonderful wetland wildlife haven for water birds and water creatures: turtles, eels crays, fish – who knows we may even attract some water rats?
Anyway here are some photos/videos Della took of the liberation of the turtles. It took a long while. Goodness knows how these guys manage to ‘catch’ anything to eat! Obviously there are things which are even slower! Mind you I expect that underwater they are enormously more agile. They are aquatic creatures after all (unlike tortoises which we have none of in Australia I believe).
Took a look the next day and there were heaps of turtles – kind of like whale watching in miniature actually. They are certainly enjoying the dam. I saw a couple of quite small ones which probably indicates they were already breeding in there, but so it goes. The more the merrier.
Three together – is this a ‘tutorial’ of turtles?
