SACRED HEART primary school kids got up close with the turtles this week in a class excursion to Hyde Park.

The year 2 kids met UWA researchers Blaine Hodgson and associate professor Roberta Bencini who showed them some of the park’s oblong turtles.

• UWA associate professor Roberta Bencini shows off an oblong turtle to the year 2 class from Sacred Heart Primary School. Photo supplied | Andrew Del Marco

The pair are in the midst of a joint project with the Claise Brook Catchment Group and Vincent city council to examine why there are fewer sightings of turtles these days.

In other lakes in Claremont and Jualbup females stopped producing eggs after a dry summer, while in Booragoon foxes and dogs were affecting the population, while hatchlings are getting squashed by cars wherever they’re near a road. The researchers will capture, weigh, measure, microchip and ultrascan Hyde Park’s female turtles to see if they have eggs.

by DAVID BELL