Turtle volunteers set to start tracking

The region’s volunteer turtle tracking army swings into action this week for a six-week program to help save native freshwater snake-neck turtles.

The Augusta Margaret River Shire and Nature Conservation Margaret River Region are proud partners of the Murdoch University and South West Metropolitan Alliance-led Saving Our Snake Necked Turtle (SOSNT) project.

Many southwest wetlands and waterways, including Wooditjup Bilya (Margaret River), are home to populations of the turtle which are under threat from a combination of increased drying, pumping from river pools, predators, and lack of suitable nesting habitat.

The shire has committed to a funding partnership which will provide opportunities to help save snake-necked turtles.

Volunteers are being trained to become ‘Turtle Trackers’, learning how to track nesting females, protect nests, and log the data on the TurtleSAT app.

Among the volunteers is local mum Libby Hitchcock and daughter Olive (above right), who are both both keen to start turtle tracking this week.

Program spokesman Anthony Santoro (above, centre) said: “We’re here in Margaret River and excited to be bringing the project do to the South-West where we can get the community involved in conserving the turtle and also get to do a population survey of the species. It’ll be really exciting to see how the turtles are doing down here.”

Nature Conservation officer Lauren Scanlon (above, left) said it was an exciting opportunity for the community to learn more about and help protect the river’s apex predator.