Did you know Bell's Turtles eat tiny crustaceans fit to burst?
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If you said yes, well, you'd be lying, because that is a monumental discovery made by one dedicated researcher right here in the New England.
Geoff Hughes always knew he wanted to study something to do with biology, and after taking part in a pivotal research project found himself quickly snapped up by a fascination with turtles.
A fascination which brought the Canadian right here to the New England region, undertaking his doctorate and making some interesting discoveries about the region's endangered turtles population.
"The most interesting thing I've discovered, because we don't know what Bell's Turtles eat, is that I found two large adult females who had eaten a lot of these tiny crustaceans called Daphnia," Mr Hughes explained.
While turtles tend to be quite opportunistic in what they eat, it was presumed Bell's variety ate plants.
"To my knowledge it is first instance of someone finding a fresh water turtle eating like a whale does," he said.
Mr Hughes has been studying turtles in general for 14 years now. He found an advertisement for a PhD position here at the University of New England "just too good an opportunity to pass up" and celebrated three years here this week.
His PhD is centered on conservation issues, and with the endangered Bell's Turtles only found in the New England and Northern Tablelands areas, his goal was to identify the main threats to their numbers and develop solutions.
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His work is funded by UNE, the Saving Our Species program of the NSW Environmental Land Trust, and the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment.
Unfortunately he says he's been "out-foxed" so far by the biggest threat - foxes.
"As for methods for protecting them from foxes, nothing I tried worked. Foxes are a canny and difficult opponent. I have been out-foxed," he joked.
Foxes have the potential to wipe out almost 100 per cent of nests.
So, replacing hatchlings is one of the things Mr Hughes and his colleagues have been busy doing.
Watch as Bendemeer residents and University of New England environmental science researcher Louise Streeting release hatchlings in the Macdonald River in 2018:
Across his travels, he's nestled in with the community of Bendemeer, and says the dedication of locals helping him with his work has been "outstanding".
"The fact that I can go in and plot this big wood and chicken wire structure at the side of the river and not worry about anything because I know they are watching over it, it's truly been amazing."
