Pseudemydura umbrina recovery team
A Recovery Team was set up in 1990 and consists of the following members:
In 1987 Dr Gerald Kuchling arrived at the Department
of Zoology, The University of Western Australia from Austria to work with
Professor S.D. Bradshaw on the hormonal control of reproduction in the Oblong
Tortoise Chelodina oblonga. Later he asked the Department of Conservation
and Land Management if he could help with 11 captive breeding in Pseudemydura
umbrina, a suggestion that was welcomed. Dr Kuchling is considered
to be one of the greatest experts concerning the P. umbrina species.
The Western Australian Department of Conservation and
Land Management (CALM) publishes Wildlife Management Programs to
provide detailed information and management actions for the conservation
of threatened or harvested species of flora and fauna. Management Program
No. 6 for the Western Swamp Tortoise was published late in 1990 (Burbidge
et al. 1990) and much of the information and recovery actions are taken
from that document. This Recovery Plan provides more detailed descriptions
of actions and accurate costing of them.
Since 1988 Perth Zoo has been running a ‘captive breeding program’ for Western Swamp Tortoises. The Zoo has successfully reared 170 tortoises and is releasing them at Ellen Brooks Nature Reserve and Twin Swamps Nature Reserve. The Perth Zoo is the only Zoo that keeps and breeds Pseudemydura umbrina.
Other two members are the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Australian Nature Conservation Agency (now Environment Australia).