Vulnerable turtle focus of research

Samantha Flakus admits she's "hooked on turtles" - and turtles of the freshwater kind are her special interest.

The postgraduate zoology student at the University of Queensland is studying the Mary River turtle for her masters thesis.

She stalks them on the sandbars and in the waterholes of the lower Mary River, catches, measures, weighs and tags them, even tracks them and takes their temperature using radio signals from implanted transmitters.

Samantha, 23, originally from Sydney, did a degree in applied science, specialising in coastal management, at Southern Cross University, Lismore, in 1994-96 and began her postgraduate study at the University of Queensland in mid-1997.

The Mary River turtle is found only in the Mary River which rises in the mountains near Kenilworth in south-east Queensland and runs through Gympie and Maryborough. It is described as "vulnerable" under Queensland legislation, a status due possibly to its restricted distribution.

The turtle numbers also possibly were affected by commercial collecting of eggs at an estimated 10,000 a year in the 1960s and 1970s for hatching for the petshop trade before the turtle, along with all Queensland reptiles, became a protected species in 1974.

The turtle (Elusor macrurus - meaning elusive with big tail) was identified as a new species only in 1994. Before that it was believed to be, and called, a sawshell turtle. It is one of the largest of Australia's 25 species and five sub-species of freshwater turtles. Adult males' shells can measure up to 400mm in length.

Samantha's research has found few juveniles of the slow-growing species. Most of the turtles she finds are of an ageing generation.

"We don't know why," she said. "Perhaps the breeding population has declined. I've been monitoring sites for two years and have found very few nests."

She said she had found as few as 100 eggs at sites where it was known that thousands of eggs were collected in the past for the petshop trade.
Samantha's study area is from Kenilworth to the Gunalda-Tiaro area. Her work is partly financed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage. It is part of a major DEH study looking at the effects of weirs and dams on turtle populations in the Mary, Burnett and Fitzroy river systems.

DEH senior principal research scientist Col Limpus, who is also an adjunct associate professor with the University of Queensland's Centre for Conservation Biology, is overseeing the research.

Dr Limpus said Samatha's project was the first detailed study of the Mary River turtle. "It is a different species, in a genus by itself," he said. "It is also one of the largest of Australia's freshwater turtles."

For further information, contact Samantha Flakus at the Zoology Department, the University of Queensland, telephone 07 3365 1391.