Underwater Nesting by the Tropical Fresh-Water Turtle, Chelodina-Rugosa (Testudinata, Chelidae)

Abstract

Nests of the northern long-necked turtle, Chelodina rugosa, were located by surgically implanting radio-transmitters in the oviducts of gravid females so that the transmitters were deposited in the nest with the eggs. Nests are excavated in soft substrate under shallow water in the littoral zone of seasonally flooded billabongs during the wet and early dry season. Embryonic development remains arrested until floodwaters recede in the dry season and the ground dries. Hatchling emergence presumably coincides with heavy rain or flooding at the beginning of the following wet season.