{"id":486652,"date":"2026-02-17T22:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/486652\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:39:14","slug":"endangered-manning-river-turtles-bred-in-captivity-at-aussie-ark-released-into-wild-barrington-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/486652\/","title":{"rendered":"Endangered Manning River turtles bred in captivity at Aussie Ark released into wild Barrington River"},"content":{"rendered":"

Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

AAA<\/p>\n

The romantic life of turtles has become an unexpected passion for Hayley Shute, chief conservation officer of Aussie Ark. In 2019, the environmental charity on the Central Coast took in 12 endangered Manning river turtles at risk from the ongoing drought and bushfires. It was Shute\u2019s job to convince the reptiles to breed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to become a turtle,\u201d Shute said. \u201cWe had to just live and breathe turtles and figure them out. It was so rewarding when we started seeing courtship behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

A week ago, Aussie Ark released eight sub-adult turtles hatched in 2020, and 13 juveniles hatched in 2024 and 2025, into a pristine waterhole in the Barrington River, a tributary of the Manning.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a further 14 tiny turtles will be released as well.<\/p>\n

\"AussieAussie Ark chief conservation officer Hayley Shute releasing a Manning River turtle into the Barrington River in February 2026.Janie Barrett\"OneOne of the Manning River turtles that were successfully bred at Aussie Ark.Janie Barrett<\/p>\n

Ricky Spencer, adjunct professor at Western Sydney University, said this was the first time that Manning River turtles had been bred in captivity, and the release would boost the species\u2019 chances of survival.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you save one turtle, you\u2019re not only picking up her, you\u2019re actually picking up maybe 2000 of her babies because they live 100 years and produce 20 eggs per year,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cSaving one turtle has a massive impact on the population.\u201d<\/p>\n

The release of the young turtles is \u201cbittersweet\u201d for Shute and her team, but it is a huge achievement and the culmination of years of work.<\/p>\n

Of the original 12 turtles, one female arrived already pregnant and later laid a clutch of eggs, which hatched in 2020. It took another two years before the turtles started breeding in captivity.<\/p>\n

\"RubyRuby Hawling and Billy Collett from Aussie Ark putting Manning River turtles in the same tank as part of a breeding program.Janie Barrett\"ManningManning River turtles are put in the same tank for mating at Aussie Ark\u2019s facility at the Australian Reptile Park.Janie Barrett<\/p>\n

Shute said they had to figure out what the turtles liked to eat, whether the males and females should be separated or together, and when they should be brought together for possible breeding. They eventually realised the turtles should be kept apart for winter and they could introduce the females to the males after emulating spring rains.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Parnee<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe started seeing the female sort of swimming past the male, almost seductively, and the male started to follow her around and his head would be right behind hers,\u201d Shute said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey started doing this beautiful nosing behaviour \u2013 they literally just put their noses together and just sit there for hours and hours. And then the male would start to put his little flippers up to her face and fan her face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just fell in love with that species so much watching that courtship behaviour. Then from there, we saw breeding, which was an incredible feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"AerialAerial view of the Barrington River, within the Manning River catchment.Janie Barrett<\/p>\n

Get to the heart of what\u2019s happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n

Manning River turtles are a freshwater species found only in the upper and middle reaches of the Manning River catchment, from the Great Dividing Range to the Mid North Coast of NSW.<\/p>\n

Like all freshwater turtle species, they help keep rivers clean by scavenging and eating aquatic plants, but threats include urbanisation and feral animals such as foxes, cats and pigs.<\/p>\n

Foxes are the biggest problem, Spencer said, because they destroy 95 per cent of wild turtle nests, and eat eggs, hatchlings and even adult females as they try to lay.<\/p>\n

Spencer is also head of community conservation citizen science program 1 Million Turtles, which has the TurtleSAT app for citizen scientists to record turtle and nest sightings, and is pushing landowners to build \u201cbiodiversity islands\u201d in dams for turtles and birds.<\/p>\n

\"AA Manning River turtle egg in incubation at Aussie Ark on February 6.Janie Barrett\"AA Manning River turtle hatching from its egg on February 9, 2026.Janie Barrett<\/p>\n

By incubating the eggs and releasing live young, Aussie Ark is removing the alien threat of feral predators and greatly increasing the young turtles\u2019 chances of survival.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they\u2019re in the river, they\u2019re relatively safe,\u201d Shute said. \u201cA kookaburra might take one, or a water dragon might take one, but the foxes and cats, they just eat everything or kill everything, so it\u2019s not a natural cycle whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA Manning River turtle has a health check at Aussie Ark prior to its release in the Barrington River.Janie Barrett\"AA three-month-old Manning River turtle is weighed as part of a health check at Aussie Ark.Janie Barrett<\/p>\n

The eight sub-adults were released with VHF transmitters attached, allowing Aussie Ark and Spencer\u2019s PhD student Pham Van Thong to track their movements for two years and measure survival rates. (So far, some are hanging out around the release site, and others have gone a kilometre downstream).<\/p>\n

Ten of the 14 smaller turtles to be released on Wednesday will also have tiny transmitters. Tracking turtles of different ages will provide insight into the optimal timing for a wild release, Shute said.<\/p>\n

\"AA Manning River turtle has a VHF transmitter attached to its shell.Janie Barrett<\/p>\n

Aussie Ark will retain the original dozen turtles as an \u201cinsurance population\u201d and for further breeding.<\/p>\n

Andrew Steed, the species coordinator for the Manning River turtle under the NSW government\u2019s Saving our Species program, said this was an important safeguard given a virus wiped out 90 per cent of the wild population of the closely related Bellinger River turtle in just six weeks in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout this sort of program, species such as the Manning River turtle can slowly head to decline because the adults are so long-lived, you don\u2019t notice that the population is missing its very young cohort of turtles,\u201d Steed said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-486652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}