# Bum breathing turtles and farmers



## RoryBreaker (Apr 23, 2016)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-...bringing-science-and-farming-together/7350202

I only posted this link so I could type "bum breather".


----------



## Wally (Apr 23, 2016)

They must have terrible breath.


----------



## alichamp (Apr 24, 2016)

I was hoping from your title it would also be about bum breathing farmers. lol


----------



## RoryBreaker (Apr 24, 2016)

alichamp said:


> I was hoping from your title it would also be about bum breathing farmers. lol



There's plenty of them that talk sh#%!


----------



## BredliFreak (Apr 24, 2016)

How could they breathe from their bums with their head in their **** :lol:


----------



## Bluetongue1 (Apr 25, 2016)

Apart from the odd typo, and the blatantly incorrect statement that “it breathes oxygen through its anus”, I found this a truly excellent article. Great to see people who can involve landholders in learning about the basic ecology of water courses on the land over which they have control. To my mind, this is the only way forward to really ensure that the environment and its biodiversity is maintained in such circumstances.

Definitely a lot more desirable to have around than human bum-breathers!


----------



## BredliFreak (Apr 26, 2016)

Indeed! It's good to see that these little guys are finally getting what they need. I remember a few years ago some certain "conservationists" were destroying some habitat (brownie points to those who know who I'm talking about). I think expansa1 on here would be ecstatic to know this (he's probably behind some of it)


----------



## RoryBreaker (Apr 26, 2016)

IMO , the Queensland State Government missed an opportunity when the Traverston Dam project got rejected by the Feds. They had already spent $600million buying properties which were to be affected by the proposed dam's footprint. Turning that land into national parks and rehabilitating the river banks after years of poor farming practices (eg. cattle trodden river banks, etc..) would have been awesome but required more money to be spent.

Instead , the state gov has been slowly dripping feeding those lands back into the market place and/or leasing them back to graziers. Until the banks of the Mary River are stabilised and associated erosion is sorted out, the river will continue to be a silted up warm wide stream. Its natural default state is a cold stream running through a closed canopy. Species like the Mary River Cod are dependant on those conditions. 

While talking fish , the recent arrival of Sooty Grunter to the Mary River system could also be a concern to young turtles. I've seen pictures of them from Gympie, Imbil and Kenilworth. Sooty's are native to more northern parts of Australia , they are aggressive feeders and bully a lot of other native fish species. Could young bum breathers be harassed by hordes of Sootys in the future? Who knows. They probably already are.

Cheers,
Dave.


----------



## Bluetongue1 (Apr 26, 2016)

I agree. The very least they could have required of new land owners was to fence off the river margins from stock and to have them control weed species in the riparian environment. In addition to this, allowing access to local conservation groups to provide predator protection for turtle nesting sites should also have been a pre-requisite for land acquisition along the river.


----------

