RANGERS TALK TURTLE

Charles Darwin University Researchers are keen to find ways of conserving freshwater turtles so they held a one-day workshop with Indigenous Ranger groups last week.

Environmental scientist Dr Carla Eisemberg said freshwater turtles were an important resource for people on remote communities in northern Australia.

“One of the things I learned in my research is that turtles are very important for iron and it’s important to fight the anaemia,” she said.

“There’s a lot of anaemia in remote communities, and eating just a tiny piece of turtle is the equivalent of eating two kilos of cow meat,”

Dr Eisemberg said Indigenous knowledge was vital to the conservation effort, as she found during her own PhD research.

“Everything I learned in four years I can guarantee you that any 12-year-old from there would already know,” she said.

“So it’s very important to engage with them at the beginning of the research to make sure that we don’t need to re-invent the wheel here.”

Dr Eisemberg said the rangers were keen to start scientific turtle monitoring programs on country to help conserve the turtles.