Endangered
Mary River turtle
Elusor macrurus
Mary River turtle is a turtle in the family Chelidae — Elusor macrurus, recorded as Endangered and tied to Australia.
Appearance
Adult Mary River turtles have an elongated, streamlined carapace that can be plain in colour or intricately patterned. Overall colour can vary from rusty red to brown and almost black. The skin colouration is similar to that of the shell and often has salmon pink present on the tail and limbs.
Specimens in excess of 50 cm (20 in) straight carapace length have been recorded. Hatchlings have a straight carapace length of 2.0–3.5 cm (0.79–1.38 in).
Range and habitat
The Mary River turtle is an endangered species of short-necked turtle in the family Chelidae. The species is endemic to the Mary River in south-east Queensland, Australia. Although this turtle was known to inhabit the Mary River for nearly 30 years, it was not until 1994 that it was recognised as a new species.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
It inhabits flowing and well-oxygenated sections of the Mary River basin from Gympie to Maryborough, using terrestrial nest sites. The species is omnivorous, taking plant matter such as algae as well as bivalves and other small animal prey, such as fish, frogs, and sometimes even ducklings.
In crisis
There has been a dramatic decrease in its population due to low reproduction rates and an increase of depredation on nests. The Mary River turtle experiences many threats. Its number one threat is the looting of its nests by dogs, foxes, and goannas.
Its algae-covered shell also allows it to stay hidden from predators. This species is currently listed as Critically Endangered under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992, and under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Mary River turtle is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Mary River turtle, Wikidata item Q305970. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
