Cultural Conservation of Freshwater Turtles in Barmah–Millewa Forest
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Cultural Conservation of Freshwater Turtles in Barmah–Millewa Forest L.S. Beesley, K.M. Howard, L. Joachim, and A.J. King 2010 Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 203 Cultural conservation of freshwater turtles in Barmah–Millewa Forest Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Series No. 203 Cultural conservation of freshwater turtles in Barmah–Millewa Forest Leah Beesley 1, Katie Howard 1, Lee Joachim 2 and Alison King 1 1Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research 123 Brown Street, Heidelberg, Victoria 3084 April 2010 In partnership with: 2 The Living Murray, Indigenous Facilitator Department of Sustainability and Environment, Yorta Yorta Aboriginal Corporation cnr Schier and Maloney Streets, Barmah, Victoria 3639 Funded by: The Murray–Darling Basin Authorities’ Living Murray Program Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Department of Sustainability and Environment Heidelberg, Victoria Report produced by: Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Department of Sustainability and Environment PO Box 137 Heidelberg, Victoria 3084 Phone (03) 9450 8600 Website: www.dse.vic.gov.au/ari © State of Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment 2010 This publication is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 , no part may be reproduced, copied, transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical or graphic) without the prior written permission of the State of Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment. All requests and enquiries should be directed to the Customer Service Centre, 136 186 or email [email protected] Citation: Beesley, L., Howard, K., Joachim, L., and King, A. (2010) Cultural conservation of freshwater turtles in Barmah–Millewa Forest. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 203. Department of Sustainability and Environment, Heidelberg, Victoria ISSN 1835-3827 (print) ISSN 1835-3835 (online) ISBN 978-1-74242-631-0 (print) ISBN 978-1-74242-632-7 (online) Disclaimer: This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. Front cover photo: The Broad-shelled Turtle (photograph by Katie Howard). Authorised by: Victorian Government, Melbourne Printed by: NMIT Printroom, 77–91 St Georges Road, Preston 3072 Contents List of tables, figures and plates..................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................................v Summary............................................................................................................................................1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................3 Section 1: Documenting the current health and status of turtle populations at Barmah– Millewa Forest ...................................................................................................................................7 1 Methods.................................................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Study areas................................................................................................................................7 1.2 Collection and processing of live turtles.................................................................................11 1.3 Surveys for dead turtles ..........................................................................................................12 1.4 Analyses..................................................................................................................................15 2 Results....................................................................................................................................16 2.1 Live turtle survey ....................................................................................................................16 2.2 Dead turtle survey...................................................................................................................22 3 Discussion ..............................................................................................................................24 3.1 Conclusions and recommendations.........................................................................................27 Section 2: Knowledge sharing and community involvement.......................................................29 References........................................................................................................................................30 Appendix 1. Water quality measurements....................................................................................33 Appendix 2. Live turtle data ..........................................................................................................35 Appendix 3. Dead turtle data .........................................................................................................40 Appendix 4. Dead turtle survey flyer ............................................................................................41 Appendix 5. Turtle identification flyer..........................................................................................45 iii List of tables, figures and plates List of tables Table 1. Study sites, their descriptors, water permanence, and habitat grouping. ............................10 Table 2. Effort (hours traps were set) for at each site, and the number of each species of turtles caught......................................................................................................................................17 List of figures Figure 1. Average daily discharge downstream of Yarrawonga on the Murray River (upstream of Barmah–Millewa). ....................................................................................................................4 Figure 2. Photos and corresponding distribution maps of (a) Broad-shelled Turtle, (b) Murray River Turtle, and (c) Common Long-necked Turtle.................................................................5 Figure 3. Sites surveyed for live turtles in Barmah–Millewa Forest.................................................13 Figure 4. Sites surveyed for dead turtles in Barmah–Millewa Forest...............................................14 Figure 5. Size frequency distributions of; (a) Broad-shelled Turtle, (b) Murray River Turtle, and (c) Common Long-necked Turtle.. .........................................................................................18 Figure 6. Locations of turtle species captured during the live turtle survey. ....................................19 Figure 7. Average (± se) turtle abundance / trap / hour / site of the Broad-shelled, Murray River, and Common Long-necked Turtle..........................................................................................20 Figure 8. Average (± se) turtle abundance (per hour of trapping effort) for each site, grouped by water permanence; (a) Broad-shelled Turtle, (b) Murray River Turtle, (c) Common Long- necked Turtle. .........................................................................................................................20 Figure 9. Average (± se) body condition ( K) for turtles at each site, ordered by water permanence; (a) Broad-shelled Turtle, (b) Murray River Turtle, (c) Common Long-necked Turtle...........21 Figure 10. Average (± se) body condition of Common Long-necked Turtles in Barmah–Millewa Forest through time in relation to watering events. ................................................................22 Figure 11. Relative percent damage to the shells of live turtles in boat trafficked and non-boat trafficked sites.........................................................................................................................22 Figure 12: The number of dead turtle shells observed per kilometre of walking effort per person at each site...................................................................................................................................23 List of plates Plate 1. A selection of the habitat types included in the study: (a) river, showing netting habitat, (b) river, Yielima Bend, (c) permanent wetland, Millewa River Road, (d) large lake, Barmah Lake, (e) regulated creek, Edwards – Gulpa Junction, (f) ephemeral creek, Smiths Creek......9 Plate 2. The cathedral trap, (a) out of water, and (b) set in Tongalong Creek. .................................10 Plate 3. Turtle tagging: (a) tag placed between the fourth and fifth digit of the hind foot, (b) notch made in a marginal scute, and (c) notch made in marginal scute F, giving the turtle the unique notch code ‘F’. ............................................................................................................12 Plate 4. (a) searching for dead turtles in Millewa River Road Wetland #2, (b) remains of a shell...12 Plate 5. Common Long-necked Turtles