Rain ceremony at yalata

The ecology and morphology of Australia's desert turtle (Emydura macquarii emmotti)

“…Therefore, we classified turtles as females if they were ≥180 mm CL and did not have enlarged tails, and we classsified all turtles <180 mm CL as juveniles. Based on previous results (Georges et al, 2006; White, 2002), males and females at Waterloo have similar growth curves up to 180 mm CL (males reach 180 mm at roughly age 12 on average and females reach 180 mm at roughly age 11 on average). Therefore, this cut‐off allowed us to compare similar age cohorts (with the caveat that the female category included both subadults and mature adults).…”

“…Fishhole is ~15 km upstream of Waterloo, and Broadwater is ~13 km upstream of Waterloo and ~3 km west of Fishhole (all distances are straight-line distances). Some of the key results of the 2001-2004 study have been previously reported (Georges et al, 2006;Goodsell, 2002;White, 2002). Therefore, we will restrict our attention to a few additional aspects of that broad study and focus on the results from Waterloo, Fishhole, and Broadwater (particularly Waterloo to allow comparisons with the 2019/2022 study).…”

“…It would be useful to systematically examine nest predation rates by natural nest predators at Cooper Creek. Additionally, the age-based survivorship rates of Cooper Creek turtles should be examined, because this high abundance of juveniles at Waterloo suggests that either few juveniles survive all the way to adulthood (coupled with high reproduction rates producing many juveniles), or adult mortality is very high (coupled with high survivorship to maturity), or source-sink dynamics are occurring with high productivity and subsequent dispersal from some waterholes (Georges & Guarino, 2017;White, 2002), or some combination of those possibilities. Based on the population and mean mass of captured individuals, calculated a turtle biomass of 74.1 kg/ha (95% CI = 61.7-93.7) for Waterloo in 2019.…”

“…A high proportion of juveniles exist in some populations of E. m. emmotti (Georges & Guarino, 2017; Thompson, 1983), and there is some evidence that the permanence of each waterhole dictates population structure and dynamics (Georges & Guarino, 2017; White, 2002). Additionally, a study of E. m. emmotti sex ratios found that five populations were unbiased, five were male‐biased, and one was female‐biased (Georges et al, 2006).…”

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“…For her own research she chose to consider the roles of women in Aboriginal soci ety. This focused on desert groups, with major fieldwork in the late 1960s and 1970s often in collaboration with linguist Luise Hercus and musicologists Catherine Ellis and Helen Payne (see White 1970;Hercus and White 1973;White 1977;White 1979;White and Payne 1992). She brought fresh insights to research from the breadth of her own intellectual background and personal experience, as well as an independent creative stance.…”