Green Turtle Hatchlings

Chelonya midas

Description:

The island of Lankayan has a protection program for sea turtles. In this time of the year many turtles return to the island to lay their eggs (see last pictures for a mom delivering her eggs in the beach). To protect the turtles from predators the biologists take them from the natural nest into a hatchery. They record the hatching time and when the hatchlings are ready to surface they take them out to the sea. The hatching is about 50-70 days after the eggs were laid and the clutch can be 100-200 eggs. It is important to release the hatchlings in the beach and let them find the water by themselves so that they really can memorize the environment where they were born since as adults they will return there to mate and lay their eggs. The presence of humans nearby protects them from being picked up by the opportunistic sea birds who are also in numbers there to hunt them.

Habitat:

Lankayan Island, Sabah.

Species ID Suggestions

17 Comments

triggsturner 7 years ago

Congratulations Marta. For your SOTW.

LuisStevens 7 years ago

Congrats Marta! Excellent series.

Wild Things 7 years ago

Lovely spotting! Congrats Marta!

The MnMs 7 years ago

Thanks again. We were lucky to be there at the time the mothers were coming to deposit their clutch and also that there were many clutches due to hatch in their nursery. I am still puzzled on how the tiny turtles memorize their birth place to return to the same beach as adults! BTW, let's all remove any plastics we may see in sea waters as this is a big turtle killer, they confuse plastic bags by jelly fishes which they eat!

outsidegirl0 7 years ago

so cute!

Jim Nelson 7 years ago

Excellent posting, Marta...well Done!

JoanMoffattBiddie 7 years ago

COOL!

Gilma Jeannette Ospino Ferreira-Norman 7 years ago

Fantastic! Super SOTW! Turtles need as much help as they can get. Congratulations, Marta RubioTexeira, thank you so much for sharing this extraordinary spotting.