Good citizens make good science

From turtle monitoring to bushfire recovery, citizen science is transforming Australian research

A heads-up to all freshwater turtles basking on rocks under the Australian sun: someone is watching you. But it’s all for a good cause.

Researchers have known that turtle numbers have been declining at an alarming rate since the 1970s. But they didn’t have the resources they desperately needed to survey the countless bodies of water across the continent that native freshwater turtles call home.