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Drought kills turtles by the thousand in Australia
2005-12-19
Drought kills turtles by the thousand
From: By Philip Hammond
WHEN Queensland's extended drought completely dried up Lake Numalla in Queensland's far southwest this year, an estimated 10,500 turtles died.
A comprehensive survey by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service staff concluded "this could represent one of the largest reported freshwater turtle kills in Australia".
Ranger Danny Mckellar said there had been absolutely no flow into the lake this year.
"We got some showers recently, but the lake is still dry. The creek that flows into the lake is also dry, with a just few shallow ponds from the showers," he said."We'd need a good flow in the Paroo River at a good height for about three weeks or more to fill the lake."
Mr Mckellar said as far as it was known, this was only the third time the lake has been dry in 200 years.
Rangers at Currawinya National Park, which is remarkable for having a salt lake and a freshwater lake side by side, stressed the wildlife kill was "a prime, if extreme example of the catastrophic events that drive Australia's arid zone ecology".
In the Environmental Protection Agency publication Bush Telegraph, they reported: "In 2005 it became obvious that Lake Numalla would probably completely dry out. By early 2005, the water level was so low that large numbers of turtles could be seen in the shallow water. The first dead turtles were reported in February and the remaining live turtles were very stressed. By April, most, if not all, the turtles in the lake were dead."
While the exact cause of the turtle kill remains unknown, "it is believed that this was a natural event resulting from a combination of algal bloom, toxic cyanobacteria, thermal stress, collapse of the food chain, predation by feral pigs and increased salinity".
"There is still a healthy population of turtles in the nearby Paroo River. When this river floods, Lake Numalla will fill and probably be repopulated with Murray River short-neck turtles," they reported.
This news is brought
to you by Hong Kong Reptile & Amphibian Society;
Source from original journalist.
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