Western swamp tortoise
The Western Swamp Tortoise is Australia's most endangered reptile. It is the sole surviving member of its genus that dates back to 15-20 million years and is the most primitive of its family.
Only 2 populations are left in the wild on the Swan Coastal Plain within the Perth metropolitan area. They live in habitats of shallow, winter-wet swamps during winter and in summer and autumn aestivate (similar to hibernation) due to the high temperatures. It is at this time they are most susceptible to fires and predators, such as the European Red Fox.
The Western Swamp Tortoise was once thought extinct, then in 1953 it was rediscovered when a Perth boy found one crossing the road and took it to the Western Australian Naturalists' Club Wildlife Show. The number of Western Swamp Tortoises in the wild has dropped from about 200 in the 1960's to about 30 in the 1980's. This brought the species very close to the edge of extinction.
Due to conservation efforts such as re-establishing habitat within reserves and securing of the swamps from feral predators the numbers have slowly increased to an estimated 110 in 2001. The Threatened Species Network has funded a project that will help the local community to restore those managed habitats and eradicate the threats to the tortoise within them.
In 1988 Dr Gerald Kuchling initiated a captive breeding program at Perth Zoo. WWF is one of the organisations that have contributed to maintaining the program and today over 170 tortoises have been successfully reared at the zoo. The challenge now is relocating the captive bred tortoises to their natural habitats to increase the wild population and the recent release at Mogumber Nature Reserve is one step in the process of achieving this.
WWF would like to commend the Western Swamp Tortoise Recovery Team for their efforts to conserve the Western Swamp Tortoise including Perth Zoo, University of Western Australia and Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM).
