Daangean turtle project

Lots of questions needed answering.

With Parks Victoria being 100% supportive of starting a monitoring program within the park, we were off and running, well actually walking A LOT- a real lot!

Since starting in November 2018 and finishing the monitoring at the end of March 2019, with the help of a fabulous bunch of volunteers, we successfully mapped the entire reserve. We covered the shoreline and surrounding areas methodically two to three times, looking for turtle activity and recording every turtle nest that was raided by foxes.

Photos credits above: SamGordon and Deborod

hard work pays off

All the hard work of the initial survey paid off, giving great insight into the turtles behaviour within Devilbend Natural Features Reserve. This insight has allowed for key adaptive management practices to be put in place. This includes protecting nests from predatory foxes, improving and protecting habitat within nesting sites and adjusting maintenance within some nesting zones so as not to interfere when turtle nesting is taking place.

Overall, the clear message that came out of this initial assessment, was that at least 95% of the turtle nests were being dug up & destroyed, and ongoing assistance for the turtles was clearly needed.

Getting to know our local turtles

The 2019/20 nest monitoring started in September in an attempt to stay ahead of the foxes, with protecting nests and getting an understanding of how site-specific it is regarding the nesting habits of our local turtles.

What we are looking to discover:

When does nesting begin?
What triggers the nesting?
Types of preferred nesting terrain
Optimum soil temperature and moisture range
How long is incubation and does it differ depending on soil temperature or different soil structures?
Does atmospheric pressure have any influence?
Is there multiple species of turtles live at the Park?
Best nest protection practice

Scent detection dog training

Meet Ari the sniffer dog: Bred by Seeing Eye Dogs, but later had a career change, Ari is a 4 year old chocolate Labrador who has been training in conservation scent detection for approximately 2 years. Target odours include greater glider scat and Broadshell turtle nests.

We utilise the skills of the trained scent detection dog to survey areas of Devilbend Natural Features Reseve known to be frequented by nesting turtles to locate and protect nests.

Handler: Claire Crewe worked with Ari for 2 years in scent detection, and prior to that trained him to be a potential Seeing Eye dog. She has been involved in dog training since 2006, holds a certificate 3 in dog behaviour and training, qualified Seeing Eye Dog trainer and puppy development trainer. She attends regular professional development in the area of science based dog training.

Scope: Initial training using old nest plugs and shells from Devilbend has commenced and will continue with fresh nests once turtles start nesting.

Work is continuing on Ari’s response to obedience cues (recall, sit, down and emergency stop) to ensure safety of dog, people and wildlife.

Turtle Project Goals

The Daangean turtle project is not just about turtles, it’s also about encouraging and bringing together community and professional involvement to make a difference.

Professional advice and guidance is provided by Katie Howard from the Arthur Rylah Institute (DELWP), Gidja Walker from SPIFFA, Seawinds Nursery, Bunurong Land Council, Parks Victoria & Melbourne Water.

We are also working with schools, with keen helpers from Moorooduc Primary School & Tyabb Railway Station Primary School. Community organisations including Willum Warrian, Bunjilwarra, SPIFFA and local Friends groups are all providing different levels of help and support.

Overall goals:

To protect nests from predatory foxes.
Investigate methods to improve nest protection.
Train a sniffer dog to investigate its ability to discover new nests.
Monitor the success rate of protected nests.
Determine whether there is a healthy age demographic of turtles within the reserve.
Develop a better understanding of what triggers nesting within the reserve and determine if there is a combination of variables that need to be in place. For example, soil temperature, atmospheric pressure, rain etc. This goal is aimed at improving time management and focussing our efforts in future surveys.
Observe if there are nesting patterns within the reserve by recording and mapping nest site locations over time. This goal is aimed at improving time management and focussing our efforts in future surveys.
Keep track of nests raided by introduced foxes.
Maintain healthy nesting site locations and investigate different methods to achieve this.
Promote Fox control within the reserve and surrounding private and local government managed land.
Recommend management plans to improve nesting success rate in asset management areas (catchment drains). Monitor, advise and adapt recommendations if needed.
Observe and monitor outcomes over time.
Improved nest site plant biodiversity.

Abandoned incomplete turtle nest

Eastern long-neck turtle nest

turtle nest successfully hatching

Covered eastern long-neck turtle nest

habitat improvement goals for Nesting sites

Remove invasive weeds from nesting sites that could limit the area of favourable nesting ground. Methods considered; hand weeding, cut and dab, burning.
Plant appropriate plants to assist in weed suppression within the nest sites to encourage overall diversity, which should also assist frogs, lizards and birds.
Improve and add to shoreline plant diversity and structure. This helps to assist with safe basking areas, provides opportunities for turtle stealth / ambush feeding, increases food sources for turtles, and increases opportunities for frogs, lizards and birds.
Maintain the current macro-invertebrate health score, with the aim to increase macro-invertebrate numbers and diversity.
Once established, the planting sites will then be used as a bush nursery for other areas within the Reserve to help improve their diversity.
Observe and monitor outcomes over time.

Community Shoreline working bee

habitat structures using logs & making islands

improving shoreline plant diversity

weed removal from turtle nesting sites

Nest site temperature test

A brief experiment testing soil temperature at a depth of 100mm below the surface was conducted over 2 days using a temperature logger in one of the turtle nesting site.

The results showed a Max 0f 31.2c , Min 16.7 with a average temp of 19.1c. Being March, which is the mounth that hatching should start to occur I found it very interesting that there was such a broad temperature range. I am looking foward to testing further, the plan is to put 3 loggers in the ground a difrent nesting sites around the Reserve to obtain a complete picture of the temperature rangers right through the nesting, incubation and hatching period.

a few recent achievements

137 nests have been covered to protect them from predatory foxes since the project started. Habitat improvement works is now taking place in two nesting site areas to remove Spanish heath, Bone-seed, Coastal wattle and Pine tree saplings.
Successfully initiated Melbourne Water to implement an adaptive management plan for their mowing in two of the nesting site locations, aimed to improve hatching success rates.
Environmental sniffer dog training program to help assist in locating turtle nests has recently begun.
Grant received from Melbourne Water to improve habitat plant diversity within the nesting zones and provide safe basking areas for turtles and safe night roosting for birds.
Designed a new raised style of mesh cover which has been a great success for protecting the turtle nests from foxes.

Our New mesh cover design for protecting turtle nests

ARI turtle project report

Our Daangean turtle project report by Katie Howard from the Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI), is hot off the press and attached for download below for everyone to have a read. If you are new to the Citizen Science Crew, this is a good way to see the different elements of the turtle project and what we’re doing. Katie’s done a great job highlighting the different key components of the project.

This report was paid for by the Melbourne Water livability Grant with the aim of providing a baseline for our turtle program at Devilbend Natural Features Reserve.

Not included in the report, are the outcomes recorded for the 2022 nesting season, which are:

40 nests covered and protected from foxes.
Approximately 90 abandoned & incomplete nests
100 + Fox-raided nests