Yesterday I was fortunate to experience some turtle hatchlings “run for the ocean”. People and dogs were very interested in this but generally the people kept the dogs from interfering. I went to get my camera and when I returned, many more hatchlings had been dug up, and put in a plastic tub by well meaning but uninformed humans. One of them suggested to look this event up on the net. I incorrectly discarded this advice and just suggested they be left alone, but guarded in their journey to the water. Later I followed the advice and found this site (and many others): https://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/wildlife/watching/turtles/
“A quote from that site says: Don't handle hatchlings! They are not toys. They are responding to many environmental cues as they cross the beach.”
Re: Turtle season
Posted by Daniel H on February 9, 2018, 8:40 am, in reply to "Turtle season"
Nice post, thank you.
Re: Turtle season
Posted by Busguy on February 9, 2018, 3:52 pm, in reply to "Turtle season"
Thanx Daniel. A few other points I wasn’t previously aware of: Nests generally have between 50 and 350 eggs. Mom can lay up to 8 times a year. Statistically, only 1 in a 1000 hatchlings live to maturity (30 to 50 years old). Hatchlings find their way to the ocean because it is the brightest section of the horizon. The warmer the nest, the more likely the hatchlings will be female.
Re: Turtle season
Posted by Cassandra Donlon on February 9, 2018, 7:52 pm, in reply to "Re: Turtle season"
Thank You Busguy and Daniel. It was an exhilarating sight. Hope future hatchlings will be respected and left untouched; Otherwise their own environmental cues can be disrupted.
This is mexico
Posted by beccistarr on February 10, 2018, 7:14 am, in reply to "Turtle season"
Perhaps you should google turtles on the pacific coast of Mexico as the protocol is much different here than in Queensland where the environment is more protected. There are many reasons why it is different here and the higher attrition rate is one of them. We can help more of them survive. Check it out
Re: This is mexico
Posted by William on February 10, 2018, 6:23 pm, in reply to "This is mexico"
Here in the Caribbean many islands have turtle sanctuaries where they take hatchlings and feed them on dog or cat food until they are sizeable.
Hence supposedly many more reach maturity after release as it appears most of the hatchlings are eaten within a few hours of entering the sea. The predators know when the hatching season is and wait in the bays for a good scoff. That is why only one in a thousand ever reach maturity.
I just wonder how those released find dog and cat food at sea?
A turtle sanctuary may be something worth considering? They tend to be self funding because it is on the list of things to see for every visitor.
Re: This is mexico
Posted by Daniel H on February 10, 2018, 7:35 pm, in reply to "Re: This is mexico"
Hi William,
Seeing as this is the Internet do you have a link to help us learn more / validate your statement?
Re: This is mexico
Posted by Daniel H on February 11, 2018, 3:56 am, in reply to "Re: This is mexico" Edited by board administrator February 11, 2018, 8:31 am
I searched for about an hour using the query's - hatchling sea turtles - caribbean hatchling sea turtles - and found information about assisting the natural process in various ways but nothing about feeding hatchlings.
This article talks about the frenzy determining the time of release, something which I remember as controversial among public release programs.
"Once newly hatched sea turtles start moving around and becoming very active, they begin burning off that special, limited energy reserve. This active, high-energy state is called a frenzy. It can happen at any time, but most often happens during the night or in the early morning. If the hatchlings begin to frenzy, they must be and are released as soon as possible to ensure they will have the energy they need to survive.
Since hatchlings are more likely to be ready for release during the night or in the early morning, public releases are scheduled for the early morning to fit within the biological needs of the hatching turtles. But if the hatching turtles begin to frenzy during the night, they are released at that time and the public release may be cancelled, depending on whether any other nests are ready for release".
This PDF (section 5B) had some interesting info on nest development
"Embryos get water for growth from the yolk and also from the surrounding sand. The eggs have to be porous enough to allow water vapor to pass through. Just like human beings, developing sea turtle embryos need to take in oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. These gases pass through the egg shell. Obviously the state of the beach will determine how well this happens. (What if a turtle lays her eggs in an area of the beach that is underwater half of the day due to tidal cycles?)
When it is time, hatchlings use a specialized egg tooth (a hard tip on their nose) to break the egg shell. The egg tooth disappears shortly after hatching. Once the hatchling is free of the shell, it begins the long process of digging its way to the surface. Movement caused by breaking free of the shell causes neighboring eggs to hatch. As each egg hatches, the fluids drain away, creating air space in the nest.
The hatchlings, aware of which way is “up”, wiggle and dig towards the surface in a rare example of cooperation among individuals known as “protocooperation”. The hatchlings move upwards in a group through the sand and the majority of the turtles reach the surface together. The climb to the surface may take several days to complete. Once there, the hatchlings wait unseen, just below the surface, until the sand cools (signaling night time) and then emerge quickly and together from the nest. This behaviour increases the chance that a turtle will make it to the water. With so many hatchlings in one place, it would take a lot of predators to get them all! Once in the water, the hatchlings are once again solitary animals and will compete for food and shelter.
By cooperating together, the hatchlings help one another to survive. When cooperation occurs between different species, it’s called mutualism, which is a form of symbiosis. Symbiotic relationships can also be harmful to one of the participants. There are three different kinds of symbiotic relationships. In mutualism, both animals benefit from the exchange. When bees drink nectar from flowers and in turn pollinate the flower, both the plant and bee win. In commensalism, one animal benefits while the other is neither harmed nor helped. Some vines use trees to reach light and for support, but do not harm the tree. In parasitism one animal gains, and the other is harmed. For example, Cuckoo birds lay their eggs in other birds’ nests. When the chicks hatch, the larger cuckoo chick pushes the other chicks out of the nest."
This link will download a PDF file to your desktop
Posted by Cruz on February 11, 2018, 9:35 am, in reply to "Re: This is mexico"
Hola. Am I misreading that there aren't any turtle conservation efforts in Mexico? There are several, at least, including even a small effort here in LM.
A close by turtle reserve is located in Cuyutlan (might not be the correct spelling or name) situated seaside before reaching Tecoman, Colima. They collect and incubate turtle eggs and then release the protected babies. (I don't know that they feed them dog/cat food, lol)
Also one can view all four of our regions turtle species held in special tanks. These specimens are protected and rotated regularly and they are fed, what I don't know.
I believe Mexico's turtle conservation efforts are producing good results. Cruz
Re: This is mexico
Posted by Busguy on February 11, 2018, 9:38 am, in reply to "Re: This is mexico"
Very interesting, Daniel. Thanx for doing the research...
Re: This is mexico
Posted by Daniel H on February 11, 2018, 9:59 am, in reply to "Re: This is mexico" Edited by board administrator February 11, 2018, 10:10 am
Your welcome, I enjoy it.
That PDF has interesting bits spread out, like ....
Section 2C
"Females generally nest during seasons that are warm and dry. They will deposit from 1 to 12 clutches of eggs per nesting season, with an average of 3 to 6 clutches."
"Unlike chicken eggs, in sea turtle eggs the embryo attaches itself to the inside of the egg shell and breathes directly through the shell.
Leatherbacks lay many infertile, often smaller “barrier” eggs in each nest, usually last, so they are at the top of the nest. These eggs may serve to seal the nest, preventing sand from sifting in between the larger eggs below. They may also humidify the nest as they lose moisture over time.
All sea turtles practice solitary nesting, but Kemp’s ridleys in the Caribbean, as well as olive ridleys in the Pacific, exhibit aggregated nesting known as an arribada. Often the mass nesting appears to happen with certain moon or tidal phases."
Section 2 D
"Sea turtles have a substance called magnetite in small amounts in their brains; this same substance has been found in the brains of homing animals like pigeons and may explain how turtles can sense the earth’s magnetic field."
Reminded me of this I read a couple days ago
TIL Humans actually possess the protein (cryptochromes) needed for the detection of magnetic fields. But our brains doesn't seem to have any way to decode the information.