Freshwater turtles are one of the most threatened groups of vertebrates worldwide and in the modern world of highly urbanized wetlands, they are fighting a constant struggle for survival once they leave the safety of their aquatic home to nest on land.
Until now, limited information exists on the effective design of eco passages to enable their safe movement from one side of the road to another.
Researchers from the Harry Butler Institute at Murdoch University studied the southwestern snake-necked turtle (Chelodina oblonga)—found in southwestern Western Australia—and discovered that this “Near Threatened” species (as listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature) would likely benefit greatly from the installation of newly designed tunnels, as well as the enhancement of their new tunnels, and the improve their tunnels to successfully cross their animals, and to improve their tunnels to successfully create a tunnel animals.
This study provides the first account of the factors that can optimize the successful tunneling of southwestern snake-necked turtles to reduce road-related mortality, contributing to the conservation and management of the species and freshwater turtles in general.
Harry Butler Institute turtle ecologist Dr. Anthony Santoro says that the vulnerability of freshwater turtles to the death of cars calls for this study of their behavior and help to create effective strategies to improve their safety.
“Freshwater turtles undergo seasonal migrations across terrestrial landscapes for nesting, as well as movement from unfavorable habitat conditions,” said Dr. Santoro.
“As part of this research, we tested whether the different levels of light in the tunnels affected their ability to use them successfully to safely negotiate road crossings.
“The turtles in the light treatment were more likely to cross the tunnel, with 97.3% of the turtles in the light treatment successfully crossing, compared to only 30% of the turtles in the dark tunnels.
“Unfortunately, many of Perth’s existing wildlife tunnels are dark.”
Dr. Santoro said the research led the group to propose simple changes that could have a major impact on the future of freshwater turtles.
“As a result of this study, our proposals are to create new underpasses with open ends in wetlands surrounded by roads, where turtle attacks often occur, or to modify existing underpasses to increase the level of light.
“If this is not possible, artificial lighting can be installed, which has the same effect as natural light; either option can reduce road-related deaths.”
The team suggested that complementary monitoring would also help provide more and more insight into turtles’ use of the underpass.
More information:
Anthony Santoro et al, Optimizing road underpass design to maximize turtle (Chelodina oblonga) use, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (2023). DOI: 10.1002/aqc.3982
Provided by Murdoch University
Citation: New research suggests ways to improve underpass design for freshwater turtles (2023, July 24) retrieved on July 25, 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-07-ways-underpass-freshwater-turtles.html
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