CARING for Reptiles Southwest’s Jess Berry has voiced her concerns over residents’ awareness of turtles in and around Busselton, after nine turtles with shell fractures were handed in to her in the past two months.
Ms Berry, who runs the South West-based reptile rescue and rehabilitation centre, said there has been a huge influx of Southern Snake-neck turtles (formerly Oblong) with reported shell fractures coming through her doors.
She said in the past she used to receive about five turtles with shell fractures per year, but has seen that number almost double in a much shorter space of time.
“A turtle takes months to rehab a shell fracture – it’s a broken bone, so it takes a long time,” she said.
“On Monday night a gentleman noticed four turtles were run over all at once.
“He got a hold of us and drove a very very fractured turtle to us, who we couldn’t fix – he was euthanised.”
Ms Berry said the person found the turtles all lined up, which was very unusual, and that they were in a poor way when he got to them.
“He was so devastated with the outcome and what had happened and just the ignorance of some passersby that he went into his local DPaW office in Nannup and said ‘this isn’t good enough, we need some more awareness’,” she said.
“They handed him two signs, said paint them and put them where you want them, which he has done.”
Ms Berry implored the City of Busselton to put up more signs to alert more people of turtles in the area.
“I would love to put signs up, even if they weren’t stationary and were just seasonal signs,” she said.
“So between September and March we could have signs up saying ‘In this area, turtles frequent’.
“Busselton’s built on a wetland, so we have a lot of turtles here, and they do cross most of our main roads.”
Ms Berry said residents should be aware that the turtles are around, especially around places where a lot of construction is occurring.
“If they find one, slight pressure should be applied on top of the shell, pick them up from their back end, put them into a box and take them to their closest vet or us,” she said.
“Don’t worry about washing or wound cleaning or anything like that, just get them straight to medical attention ASAP.
“If it’s just a turtle wandering across the road, pick it up and move it across in the direction it was headed to start with and it will be fine.”
Ms Berry and her team receive reptiles through vets or members of the public who take them directly to the centre, and look after them until they are ready to be released back into the wild.
For more information about this not-for-profit organisation, visit caringforreptilessw.com.