A newly discovered population of endangered turtles found only in a small collection of Queensland waterways is not only surviving but seems to be thriving.
Researchers have discovered several breeding sites of white-throated snapping turtles at Baffle Creek, about 400 kilometres north of Brisbane.
The turtles, Elseya albagula, were thought to only live in the Mary, Burnett, and Fitzroy Rivers in Queensland and are known for their unique trait of "bum breathing" — absorbing oxygen through the anus.
The catchment areas stretching from the Sunshine Coast to Rockhampton offer clear, well-oxygenated river systems with submerged boulders and log jams for shelter and sandy banks for nesting.
Two years ago, researchers with the Burnett Mary Regional Group (BMRG) were shocked to find the freshwater turtle in a new catchment area of Baffle Creek, 88 kilometres north of Bundaberg.
They have now found five more turtles and several nesting sites.
"The habitat is now facilitating breeding — that's really exciting, really positive," research manager Sydney Collett said.
Dr Collett said their "two-phase incubation style" put the animals at risk because eggs were laid in winter and did not hatch until summer.
"That means that for four, five, six months, they're really at risk of [predators] getting to them,"
she said.
"The chances of them surviving the nesting period are really low.
"They have similar rates to the sea turtles in that about 90 per cent of the nests that they lay in a season will be predated, trampled, or flooded."
Dr Collett said it was unusual for clutches to survive without human intervention.
"Maybe they just don't have foxes with very good smell or vision [at Baffle Creek]. I'm not entirely sure."
'Robust and resilient'
Marilyn Connell has been involved in conservation work for freshwater turtles in the Mary River for 20 years.
She said another reason why white-throated snapping turtles were endangered was that hatchlings took 15–20 years to mature.
"There are lots of opportunities — like 20 years — for something to go wrong," she said.
Ms Connell said finding new nests in new locations was positive news.
"It's quite a special turtle species and we're really lucky to have it,"
she said.
"If we didn't protect nests, which we can do quite successfully now, the recruitment would just be basically next to zero.
"Even though their numbers are in decline, they are still very robust and resilient. They seem to be able to hang on even at much lower numbers."
New location still a mystery
Dr Collett said it was still a mystery how the population ended up in the Baffle Creek catchment in the first place.
"It's hard to figure out how they would have gotten there naturally because they'd be walking several hundred kilometres if they were coming from another catchment," she said.
Dr Collett said it was possible the turtles had been raised as pets and released into the catchment.
"But there have been extensive surveys of the Baffle catchment, and they've never found them before," she said.
"Maybe they weren't so critically endangered as we originally thought."
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