At the moment southwestern Australia’s very own turtle is very evident at Lake Monger.
All photos copyright Doug Spencer, taken late afternoon on 27 January 2021.
This predator/scavenger has been known by a great many names.
Some of them are simply dead-wrong – it is definitely a turtle, not a tortoise.
Its allegedly “correct” scientific and common names have been a decidedly movable feast!
Currently, it “should” be known as Chelodina colliei, the South-western snake-necked turtle..
However, when someone in Southwest WA talks about a “rare” or “endangered”, “long-necked” or “snake-necked” or “oblong” turtle or “tortoise”, whatever name that someone uses, he or she probably has in mind this species.
In southwest WA – in Perth or Albany, especially – when you see a “very instagrammable” sign which urges motorists to slow down and take care not to run over turtles, Chelodina colliei is the relevant species.
(In egg-laying season many adult females are killed as they cross a road in order to reach a suitable place to lay their eggs. The hatchlings then have to cross that same road in order to reach their watery home)
Click here to discover more and to see video and more photos.
As you may remember from an earlier post, I was once lucky enough to have had a breathing turtle at my feet, on Lake Monger’s very edge.
Generally, however, you are much more likely to see them if you walk out onto one of the little jetties/observation points and then look into the water below; presumably, those structures’ shade afford the breathing turtles some protection from avian predators.
