Turtles


Australia is home to about 23 species of freshwater turtle. All but one of these species belong to the family Chelidae, which is found only in Australasia and South America. These long-, snake-, or side-necked turtles retract their head and neck beneath their shell by folding it to one side, rather than drawing their head backwards as most of the world’s species of turtles and tortoises do.

Australia also has six species of marine turtles but lacks the truly land-based tortoises that occur on all other continents except Antarctica. Only three marine turtles occur regularly in Sydney waters, the Green Turtle, the Loggerhead and the Leatherback.

North American species of freshwater turtles have also been found in the Sydney region, probably as a result of people releasing imported pets into local waterways.


Turtles

Announcements

Yesterday

We are super proud to welcome Edgar McNamara @edgarmcnamara to the team!Edgar joins NatureMapr as Junior Platform Engineer and will play a critical role in supporting the platform and our valued custo...


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Platform wide attribute changes

New Feature: Moderator Quick Responses!

New priority species lists in the ACT

NatureMapr now receives more records in NSW than ACT

Discussion

MB wrote:
6 Apr 2025

Chelonia mydas
6 Apr 2025
@MB Was the turtle dead or badly injured?
It looks like propeller lacerations on the carapace.

Chelonia mydas
Mike wrote:
22 Mar 2025
More in top dam.

Chelodina longicollis
wombey wrote:
25 Jan 2025
Can you down load an image please

Emydura macquarii
wombey wrote:
14 Dec 2024
Based on most likely species rather than much help from the image

Chelodina longicollis
812,156 sightings of 22,115 species from 13,854 members
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