Hungry foxes are having a ‘catastrophic’ impact on Australia’s juvenile freshwater turtles. There’s a push to change that

Foxes often take and kill reproductive female turtles when they come out of the water to nest. Photograph: Narelle Black

A wily red fox with a turtle in its jaws is a stark illustration of the “catastrophic” situation affecting Australia’s freshwater turtles.

Along the Murray, foxes are digging up and eating entire nests of turtle eggs, and grabbing reproductive females.