Gone walkabout? Movement of the eastern long-necked turtle Chelodina longicollis

BY: MICHELLE RYAN and SHELLEY BURGIN College of Health and Science, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, South Penrith Distribution Centre, New South Wales, Australia

Many freshwater turtle species maintain site fidelity. Short term studies (1-4 years) of the eastern long-necked turtle Chelodina longicollis have shown that turtles moved among water bodies, but some were later recaptured at the dam of initial capture. No long-term studies have been undertaken to determine if site fidelity is maintained. In this paper we re-visited farm dams, initially surveyed a decade previously, and sampled turtles to determine the extent to which C. longicollis maintained site fidelity. Only 11.9% (n=572) of turtles were recaptured. We then expanded the search (from 1 km to 2 km radius of core of original survey site) for marked individuals, and found one marked individual among 179 additional captures. Overall <10%>–1. Population structure in 1995-1996 and 2006 was similar, which indicated that the change was not due to loss of aged individuals and recruitment of young, but to an overall turnover of individuals. We concluded that C. longicollis turtles do not maintain site fidelity over extended periods. Although shown to navigate accurately during fine weather, C. longicollis turtles frequently move during inclement weather and we suggest that they become disoriented due to a lack of environmental queues, and thus take up residence in ‘new’ wetlands.