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Aussie Ark staff alongside president Tim Faulkner have collected the first Manning River turtles to begin the establishment of a robust insurance population of the endangered turtles.

The first Male, Female and Juvenile were relocated to the state-of-the-art facility at the Australian Reptile Park. The turtles will soon be joined by other individuals, in the hopes that the waterways in the Barrington Tops will soon be abundant with Manning River turtles, once more.

Additionally, Aussie Ark keepers have also rescued 12 eggs from a nest site that was at imminent risk of predation. The eggs were relocated to the Australian Reptile Park for incubation. Once hatched some of the hatchlings will be the first turtles release back into the wild.

In 2018, Aussie Ark in collaboration with the Australian Reptile Park committed to saving the critically endangered Manning River turtle from extinction, after their status was upgraded in 2017.  The speed of disappearance of the Manning River Turtle from the waterways of the Manning River district in NSW Australia warranted the upgrade of the turtle’s status to Endangered in 2017.

NSW Environment Minister, Matt Kean advised “these are an amazing animal and luckily expert teams have already begun moving them to safer locations in larger waterholes to support their survival through this dreadful drought.

Faulkner added “Manning River turtles are vital in maintaining river systems within the Barrington Tops region. Without them aquatic ecosystems tumble.

“We took notice, 2 years ago, and now catastrophic events have nearly wiped their entire population”.

Freshwater turtles are natures vacuums, they are critical to our freshwater ecosystems, cleaning up river systems, keeping aquatic vegetation in balance, and maintaining the stunning waterways Australia is known for.  

Faulkner notes “this is what we worked for. This is just the first step in the right direction for this unique, Australian turtle. We could not have done it without our partners and supporters”

The Manning River turtle facility at the Australian Reptile Park would not have been built without the support of Steber International, The Happy Wombat, Aus Eco solutions, Manning River Steel and each individual who donated to the cause.

Aussie Ark partners Global Wildlife Conservation, in collaboration with Earth Alliance have launched an international response, Australian Wildfire fund, to the catastrophic bushfires raging through the country. Pledging $3 million to rebuilding, rewilding and recovering native Australian wildlife. The Australia Wildfire Fund will work in tandem with organisations including Aussie Ark to achieve tangible outcomes for Aussie wildlife.

For more information go to www.aussieark.org.au

All images supplied by Aussie Ark

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