Thomas H. Kaminski &
Thomas H. Kaminski & Andreas S. Hennig in summer when temperatures rise to around 40 °C during the day (these range around 16–20 °C in spring and autumn and decrease to near freezing point in winter). The senior author has frequently been encountering Common Snake-necked Turtles on roads in the vicinity of watering dams of the described type in the surroundings of the town of Cumnock (New South Wales), sometimes finding more than ten specimens in an about 25 km stretch of road on rainy days. One such observation was made in a stream at 32°59’5.43”S, 148°42’49.96”E during the rainy morning hours of 11 January 2011 when air temperature was about 22 °C under an overcast sky (see Figs.). References Cann, J. (1998): Australian Freshwater Turtles. – Singapore (Cann & Beaumont Publ.), 292 pp. — (2008): Freshwater Turtles. A Wild Australia Guide. – Archerfield (Steve Parish Publ.), 96 pp. Authors Thomas H. Kaminski Australia Andreas S. Hennig Raustraße 12 04159 Leipzig Germany E-mail: hennig@chrysemys.de 32 RADIATA 22 (4), 2013
Wolfgang Gepperth Rats – A deadly Threat also to Aquatic Chelonians In September 2012, I experienced the blackest day in my history as a breeder of European Pond Turtles (Emys orbicularis orbicularis): While trimming vegetation in my outdoor pond enclosure I discovered several empty shells. A check then revealed that one of my nursery enclosures had been stripped of all its inhabitants. This section was actually supposed to house a larger number of juvenile Emys orbicularis at ages between one and three years, which I now found had all been killed and consumed. I suspected Brown Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and indeed managed to trap one during the Fig. 1. Emptied-out shell of a juvenile Emys orbicularis. Fig. 2. The saddening remains of the “massacre”. RADIATA 22 (4), 2013 33
