Reptiles get a bad rap, but this is because they’re misunderstood. Promoting healthy reptile pet ownership can contribute to conservation and education efforts.
Though often seen as placid, turtles have been depicted as powerful, fighting animals since ancient times. One of the most famous battleships, the Korean Geobukseon, was called the ‘Turtle Ship’.
Seagrasses support a wide variety of life.
Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty Image
Fish, frogs, turtles and platypus at major risk of extinction following the bushfires. So why aren’t they getting much attention?
The northern map turtle is listed as a species at risk in Canada. Little is known about its reproductive behaviour as it spends most of its life underwater.
G. Bulté
New technologies are revealing more about the secret lives of underwater turtles. Using underwater cameras and 3D printing, researchers are learning more than ever before.
Autopsies of 1,000 turtles washed up on Australian beaches paint a grim picture of the impact of plastic debris. Even a single piece can be deadly, and on average 14 pieces equals a 50% fatality rate.
Green sea turtle eating seagrass off Lizard Island.
Abbi Scott
New research highlights the role of sea turtles and dugong in the dispersal of seeds and maintenance of seagrass meadows, an important marine habitat and the primary food source for both animals.
Endangered green turtles like this one on Raine Island in Queensland’s far north face an uncertain future – one that depends largely on effective conservation measures.
AAP
With 99% of green sea turtles in the northern Great Barrier Reef hatching as females due to changing climate, the future for this species now depends largely on effective global conservation measures.
Turtles can’t head south for the winter, so they hibernate in rivers, lakes and ponds.
Millions of dead carp will fill the Murray-Darling Basin after the government releases a targeted virus. Scavengers like turtles and crayfish might help – as long as we protect them.
Traditional hunting poses no threat to dugongs.
Flickr
When 100-year-old giant tortoise Lonesome George died in 2012, the world thought his species was lost forever. We went to the Galápagos Islands looking for ‘extinct’ tortoises – and we found them.
The Bellinger Snapping Turtle is under threat, and that bodes ill for the entire ecosystem.
Copyright: Gary Bell/OceanwideImages.com