Rescued from a drying waterhole, Gwydir's turtles answered with 250 eggs

When a waterhole in the Gwydir wetlands of north-west New South Wales began drying out, rescuers lifted 39 native turtles to safety at Taronga Western Plains Zoo. Many of the females arrived carrying eggs — and at the zoo they laid more than 250 of them. The eggs are now incubating in a temperature-controlled room at Taronga's Platypus Rescue HQ, with hatchlings expected over the coming year, each one a future release back into wetlands that feed four internationally important Ramsar sites along the Gingham watercourse. The homecoming has already begun: 10 broad-shelled turtles and 3 Murray River turtles passed their health checks and are back in the wild, with the rest to follow as conditions allow. Taronga conservation officer Dr Phoebe Meagher called the eggs 'incredibly encouraging.' A rescue that began with animals losing their water ends, if the incubators do their work, with hundreds more turtles than it started with.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program