[Catalist] Camouflaged Long-Necked Turtle at Tomato Lake

[Michael McGarry]

Greetings Science Colleagues,


Recovering from open-heart surgery with four bypasses, I was recently walking around Tomato Lake with my personal carer. She fortuitously took an extremely special photograph of an Oblong turtle resting at the top of an inclined dead tree trunk at Tomato Lake in Kewdale WA. [I have uploaded a PDF of the photograph to ASTA’s e-forum ASTARIX 2.0.]


Q. What motivated the Oblong turtle to transform energy to undertake the climb?


A. The Oblong turtle wanted to obtain an aerial view of the duckweed covering the Lake surface. He/she is not happy about the decaying covering of duckweed. 


The Oblong turtle was very clever in camouflaging himself/herself in duckweed.


Q. How do you distinguish a male from a female Oblong turtle? Q. Do you know?


A Murdoch University honours student, in 2016, estimated that ~60 Oblong turtles live in Tomato Lake. The Oblong turtles ranged in age from about 15 to about 35 years old.


Students from schools located in suburbs in close proximity to Tomato Lake could make a Turtle Watch of the Oblong Turtles in Tomato Lake in Kewdale?


Students could learn more about Oblong turtles at these informative websites.


URL 1: http://www.turtleoblonganetwork.org.au <http://www.turtleoblonganetwork.org.au/>
URL 2: http://www.aaeewa.org.au/turtlewatch.html <http://www.aaeewa.org.au/turtlewatch.html>
URL 3: http://www.aaeewa.org.au/turtlewatchedkit.html <http://www.aaeewa.org.au/turtlewatchedkit.html>
URL 4: http://coolbiniaps.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017-TW-Summary.pdf <http://coolbiniaps.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017-TW-Summary.pdf>
URL 5: http://www.aaeewa.org.au/documents/TurtleWatchReport2013.pdf <http://www.aaeewa.org.au/documents/TurtleWatchReport2013.pdf>
URL 6: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23265507.2015.1061445 <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23265507.2015.1061445>
URL 7: https://project.mainroads.wa.gov.au/roe8/environment/Documents/Baseline%20turtle%20survey%20-%20Appendix%20R.pdf <https://project.mainroads.wa.gov.au/roe8/environment/Documents/Baseline%20turtle%20survey%20-%20Appendix%20R.pdf>
URL 8: https://www.murdoch.edu.au/School-of-Veterinary-and-Life-Sciences/_document/Research-Bulletins/Bulletin-6.02.pdf <https://www.murdoch.edu.au/School-of-Veterinary-and-Life-Sciences/_document/Research-Bulletins/Bulletin-6.02.pdf>
Best Wishes,


Michael John McGarry

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