Mon Repos Turtle Conservation Park
See Loggerhead Turtles By Night At Queensland Turtle Rookery
A trip to Mon Repos Turtle Conservation Park allows visitors to experience the beauty of nesting turtles as they lay turtle eggs and emerging turtle hatchlings.
The Mon Repos Turtle Conservation Park near Bundaberg, Australia offers visitors the chance to see nesting turtles and emerging turtle hatchlings through ranger guided tours held nightly over the turtle nesting season from November to late March each year.
Mon Repos Turtle Conservation Park, 15 minutes drive from Bundaberg in South-east Queensland, supports the largest concentration of nesting marine turtles on the eastern Australian mainland and is the most significant loggerhead turtle nesting population in the South Pacific Ocean.
Turtles are amazing creatures, have outlasted dinosaurs and lived in the world’s oceans for over 100 million years. The Mon Repos Information Centre has excellent displays on turtles and their life cycle, threats to turtles including pollution, by-catch and propeller blades, and also a small gift shop for souvenirs.
Seeing Turtles at Mon Repos Turtle Conservation Park
Low lighting is installed at Mon Repos to ensure a dark beach for the turtles. Nesting turtles are easily disturbed by lights and movement, especially when coming onto shore and digging their nests. Turtle hatchlings are very disorientated by lights when they emerge from their nests. Limited flash photography is allowed only when directed by the ranger guides that it is okay to take photographs without disturbing or upsetting the turtles.
Six of the seven surviving marine turtle species in the world today can be found in Australian waters. These include green, loggerhead, flatback, hawksbill, olive ridley and leatherback turtles.
The majority of nesting turtles at Mon Repos are the endangered loggerhead turtles, though green and flatback turtles are also found nesting at Mon Repos. Loggerhead turtles are carnivorous, feeding mostly on shellfish, crabs, sea urchins and jellyfish.
Turtle Nesting at Mon Repos Turtle Conservation Park
On the nightly tour, guides lead visitors down to the turtle beach after staff on the beach have spotted some action. Visitors see nesting turtles leave the water and drag themselves up on the sand past the high tide water mark.
Though primarily marine creatures, turtles will come to shore for between one and three hours when laying a clutch and some turtles will lay up to six clutches in one nesting season.
The nesting turtles make a nest by digging a hole in the sand with their flippers, before laying their eggs and covering the nest with sand to keep the turtle eggs warm. The eggs are white and soft with a ‘squishy’ texture.
Turtle Eggs and Emerging Turtle Hatchlings
Later in the turtle nesting season, visitors at Mon Repos can watch emerging turtle hatchlings take their first steps on the sand’s surface. Around eight weeks after the nesting turtle has laid her eggs, turtle hatchlings begin to emerge from their nest.
Up to 200 turtles emerge from their nest and follow the lightest horizon, the ocean. The turtle hatchlings have surprisingly strong flippers and they scurry down to the sand towards the ocean. Researchers believe their initial walk on the sand is how they imprint which beach to return to as mature nesting turtles.
The sea will be their home for at least two decades and watching the turtles on their first journey to the ocean is an incredible experience.
Mon Repos Turtle Conservation Park is managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and limited tickets are available to ensure the safety of the turtles. Visitors are urged to book ahead online through Bundaberg Region Limited.
