For freshwater turtles venturing onto land, one stretch of Queensland's Bruce Highway is deadlier than most.
Animal experts say turtle roadkill on the Bruce Highway between Maryborough and Gunalda in the Wide Bay is alarmingly high, and evidence collected by citizen scientists reveals it could be no accident.
Associate Professor Ricky Spencer at Western Sydney University created the program TurtleSAT to give anyone with a phone the ability to document turtle populations across Australia.
"Back in the days before the real uptake of apps, we created TurtleSAT where people can record where they see turtles," Dr Spencer said.
"We didn't expect the magnitude of roadkill across the country that we saw.
"Gathering that data has alerted us about how extensive it is."
Dr Spencer said the higher-than-average amount of roadkill in the Wide Bay area suggested either more turtles were crossing the road or that drivers were intentionally hitting the animals.
"Up to 14 a day in a single area are being killed in a nesting time," he said.
"What the data is showing is there are regular spots and there are predictable spots where turtles are coming out."
Foul play
The team leader of Tiaro Landcare, Marilyn Connell, said photographic evidence reinforced fears turtles in the Wide Bay region were being killed on purpose.
"All the photos of roadkill in our region, [the turtles] are all off the side of the road or in the centre lane. None of them are actually in the driving line," Ms Connell said.
"So, it appears as though some drivers are purposely driving out of the driver's lane and knocking off these turtles."
Ms Connell said she was concerned for the declining long-necked turtle population.
"The little alarm bells are not quite ringing yet, but they're on the horizon," she said.
"This same species is already listed as vulnerable in Victoria, and we don't want the same thing to happen in Queensland."
Dr Spencer said a single death of a female turtle could dramatically increase the probability of extinction.
"Turtles live for a very, very long time. Every year they're producing 20 to 30 eggs," he said.
"For 100 years producing 20 to 30 eggs, that a lot of eggs that go missing once a female turtle is hit on the road."
A win for citizen science
Despite concerns over driver behaviour, Ms Connell said the findings demonstrated the power of citizen science.
"Just going out and simply taking a photo, uploading it – it can really add enormously to scientific data and analysis," she said.
"We've now got really strong data that we can give Queensland Transport and local government who are responsible for roads.
Dr Spencer said it was easy to contribute to TurtleSAT data.
"You can download the TurtleSAT app from any app store, or go to Turtlesat.org.au and you can very simply go through the steps, identify on the map where you saw it, and upload your photo," he said.
