National Recovery Plan for the White Throated Snapping Turtle
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National Recovery Plan for the White- throated Snapping Turtle (Elseya albagula) December 2020 © Copyright Commonwealth of Australia, 2020. The National Recovery Plan for the White-throated Snapping Turtle (Elseya albagula) is licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence with the exception of the Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth of Australia, the logo of the agency responsible for publishing the report, content supplied by third parties, and any images depicting people. For licence conditions see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This report should be attributed as ‘The National Recovery Plan for the White-throated Snapping Turtle (Elseya albagula), Commonwealth of Australia 2020’. The Commonwealth of Australia has made all reasonable efforts to identify content supplied by third parties using the following format ‘© Copyright, [name of third party] ’. Disclaimer While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the contents of this publication are factually correct, the Commonwealth does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the contents, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance on, the contents of this publication. Image credits Front Cover: White-throated snapping turtle (Elseya albagula) in the Connors River, Queensland (© Stephen Zozaya and Jason Schaffer) The Species Profile and Threats Database pages linked to this recovery plan is obtainable from: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/sprat.pl. 2 Table of contents Figures and tables .................................................................................................................................... 4 Acronyms .................................................................................................................................................. 5 1 Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 6 1.1 White-throated snapping turtle (Elseya albagula) ...................................................................... 6 1.2 Habitat critical for survival ........................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Recovery plan objectives ............................................................................................................ 6 1.4 Recovery strategies .................................................................................................................... 6 1.5 Criteria for success ..................................................................................................................... 6 1.6 Criteria for failure ........................................................................................................................ 7 2 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 About the recovery plan .............................................................................................................. 7 2.2 Conservation status .................................................................................................................... 8 3 Background ....................................................................................................................................... 8 3.1 Species description .................................................................................................................... 8 3.2 Distribution .................................................................................................................................. 8 3.3 Population trends and dynamics ................................................................................................ 9 3.4 Biology and ecology ................................................................................................................. 12 3.4.1 Longevity .......................................................................................................................... 12 3.4.2 Genetics ............................................................................................................................ 12 3.4.3 Diet ................................................................................................................................... 12 3.4.4 Movement patterns ........................................................................................................... 13 3.4.5 Life history and breeding .................................................................................................. 13 3.4.6 Habitat .............................................................................................................................. 14 3.4.7 Habitat critical to survival .................................................................................................. 17 4 Threats ............................................................................................................................................. 17 4.1 Historical causes of decline ...................................................................................................... 17 4.2 Current threatening processes ................................................................................................. 18 4.2.1 Predation and trampling at nesting sites .......................................................................... 18 4.2.2 In-stream barriers ............................................................................................................. 18 4.2.3 Degradation of habitat and water quality .......................................................................... 19 4.2.4 Climate change ................................................................................................................. 20 4.2.5 Fishing and boating activities ........................................................................................... 20 5 Populations under particular pressure ........................................................................................ 22 6 Objectives and strategies .............................................................................................................. 22 7 Actions to achieve the specific objectives .................................................................................. 23 7.1 Strategy 1 – Substantially improve the recruitment of hatchlings and juveniles into the population ................................................................................................................................. 23 3 7.2 Strategy 2 – Decrease adult/subadult mortality and injury rates, and reduce barriers to movement along riverine habitats ............................................................................................ 26 7.3 Strategy 3 – Improve stream flow and habitat quality throughout the species’ distribution ..... 28 7.4 Strategy 4 – Increase public awareness and participation in conservation of the species and its habitat .................................................................................................................................. 31 7.5 Strategy 5 – Improve the collation and availability of data to inform recovery actions ............. 32 8 Duration and cost of the recovery process ................................................................................. 33 9 Current management practices ..................................................................................................... 34 9.1 Commonwealth ......................................................................................................................... 34 9.2 Queensland .............................................................................................................................. 34 9.3 Offsets ...................................................................................................................................... 35 10 Effects on other native species and biodiversity benefits ......................................................... 36 11 Social and economic considerations ........................................................................................... 37 12 Affected interests ........................................................................................................................... 37 13 Consultation .................................................................................................................................... 37 14 Organisations/persons involved in evaluating the performance of the plan ........................... 38 15 References ....................................................................................................................................... 39 Figures and tables Figure 1: Indicative distribution of the white-throated snapping turtle (Elseya albagula) ......................... 11 Table 1: Threatening processes and their priority .................................................................................... 21 Table 2: Summary of high priority recovery actions and estimated per unit costings for the first five years of implementation ..................................................................................................................................... 33 4 Acronyms AMTD Adopted middle thread distance (km) from