And what a week it’s been!
After a days frantic induction from a brilliant, inspiring, eccentric, American turtle professor, who through her enthusiasm we nearly missed the flight here – we were thrown in the deep end with live turtle specimens! It has been beyond our wildest dreams and certainly exceeded all expectations – as this week the turtles have been a bit like buses – they knew the freshers were due in town!
It all started Monday morning, Sal and the existing wardens just boardin
g the boat to attend a meeting on one of the main islands and turtle tracks were spotted on the beach – Melv was left on the case, with Sal having to depart – green with envy, (but compensated with a few flying fish on the boat journey). After practising his school boy French on 5 poor unsuspecting French visitors, Melv returned to the nest site, but unfortunately our lady turtle had finished laying and he was unable to count the eggs.
Since then turtle monitoring life has been a little more timely, surveys of the beach for evidence are done 5 times a day, looking for tracks and turtle activity. If either is found then tracks are measured and details of nesting recorded. In one week alone we have managed to witness and record 3 nesting successes – with an average of 180 eggs laid per nest.
All turtles need to be tagged for scientific purposes – (much like rare birds are ringed), their shell measured and condition recorded – what a job eh – somebody has got to do it! Fortunately all our individuals have so far been tagged – otherwise we were going to need Melv’s cattle tagging skills, but unlike with cows there isn’t a crush, and once on route to the sea they are like bulldozers -extremely difficult to stop!
There are two types here on Aride, the Hawksbill, which is the one we are currently monitoring and the Green – no where near as common and more of a night time visitor. Both are critically endangered – so what a privilege it is to be able to be part of this work. Once egg laying has taken place we mark the nest and then follow its progress, looking to see if we can get an idea about how many youngsters hatch, this will be over the next month or so – taking up to 70 days – so watch out for a follow up blog entry.
To date on the beach there are 34 turtle nests on the go, (which is more than the total recorded for last season) we are only half way through as they continue to lay until the end of Feb –so we are going to be busy – any volunteers!!
After a days frantic induction from a brilliant, inspiring, eccentric, American turtle professor, who through her enthusiasm we nearly missed the flight here – we were thrown in the deep end with live turtle specimens! It has been beyond our wildest dreams and certainly exceeded all expectations – as this week the turtles have been a bit like buses – they knew the freshers were due in town!
It all started Monday morning, Sal and the existing wardens just boardin
g the boat to attend a meeting on one of the main islands and turtle tracks were spotted on the beach – Melv was left on the case, with Sal having to depart – green with envy, (but compensated with a few flying fish on the boat journey). After practising his school boy French on 5 poor unsuspecting French visitors, Melv returned to the nest site, but unfortunately our lady turtle had finished laying and he was unable to count the eggs.Since then turtle monitoring life has been a little more timely, surveys of the beach for evidence are done 5 times a day, looking for tracks and turtle activity. If either is found then tracks are measured and details of nesting recorded. In one week alone we have managed to witness and record 3 nesting successes – with an average of 180 eggs laid per nest.
All turtles need to be tagged for scientific purposes – (much like rare birds are ringed), their shell measured and condition recorded – what a job eh – somebody has got to do it! Fortunately all our individuals have so far been tagged – otherwise we were going to need Melv’s cattle tagging skills, but unlike with cows there isn’t a crush, and once on route to the sea they are like bulldozers -extremely difficult to stop!
There are two types here on Aride, the Hawksbill, which is the one we are currently monitoring and the Green – no where near as common and more of a night time visitor. Both are critically endangered – so what a privilege it is to be able to be part of this work. Once egg laying has taken place we mark the nest and then follow its progress, looking to see if we can get an idea about how many youngsters hatch, this will be over the next month or so – taking up to 70 days – so watch out for a follow up blog entry.
To date on the beach there are 34 turtle nests on the go, (which is more than the total recorded for last season) we are only half way through as they continue to lay until the end of Feb –so we are going to be busy – any volunteers!!
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