Last Thursday Parklands Rangers accompanied Sharleen Sharpe and Amy Norris from Turtles Albury Wodonga to check out the feasibility of using an island in the Murray River to establish a fox-free turtle nesting site.

Sharleen and Amy paddled across to a 15 hectare island on the Murray River in Wodonga, setting up monitoring stations to see whether there are any foxes. The stations use chicken eggs – a fox favourite – as an attractant to gauge the existence and/or numbers of foxes present.

Foxes are the main cause of turtle decline in the Murray system. They routinely dig up turtle eggs as well as eating the newly hatched turtle young before they can make their way to water.

This island research is part of efforts to establish fox-free turtle breeding sites in our area. Work is also planned over the summer months to remove invasive woody weeds and improve habitat values for turtles and other native fauna.

This site is part of our Victorian Landcare funded Wodonga Regional Park Revegetation and Restoration project, which will tackle weeds and bring native vegetation back into Wodonga regional parklands over the next 12 months. Volunteers are welcome to join our community working bees, which will be listed on our Events listings here, or if you would like to organise a group volunteer activity, please contact us.

This project is supported by the Victorian government.