MORNING GLORY!!!

A very productive and successful beach morning walk today at CANO PALMA, Tortuguero- Monitoring Sea Turtle nests

WALK START TIME: 5:40AM

WALK END TIME: 9:45AM

Team: Lauren V, Melissa Z.

Adult tracks seen: 21

Nests hatched: 1

142 hatched babies

5 live Hatchlings found in nest stuck in tree roots...we took them to the sea :)



Started our walk with a beautiful sunrise...

This is an example of the adult tracks we find on the beach...this one is a Hawksbill turtle track

The tracks of baby green turtles making it to the ocean...when we walk the beach each morning, this is what we look for...TRACKS.  Location of adult tracks are recorded and followed to the nest...we check if the turtle actually  nested, attempted to nest or just did a loop and turned back to sea.  If the turtle did nest...we check for signs of poaching (people's footprints, stick holes in the sand, dog prints or an open chamber if someone actually took the eggs....we then record all this information and keep an eye for untouched nests to hatch two months later.

More adult turtle tracks...

When we see something like this....then we know a nest hatched.  These are baby turtle tracks...many of them all the way to the ocean...

We follow these tracks until we find the nest they're coming from...then we dig it up.  We need to dig it up not only to see if there are still any live hatchlings trying to get out, but also to count the number of hatched eggs, rotten ones, predated ones, and those that did not develop into a full turtle but died inside the egg.

This time, Lauren dug the nest and I kept count of the eggs and identified them.  Those that never hatched, we open one by one in order to see which stage of development the baby hatchling made it to.  Sometimes we open eggs that have maggots in them or fungi THESE STINK!...luckily, this time, it was a very clean successful nest....(that unopened egg u see in the picture is the only one that did not hatch...the hatchling was not fully developped).

This is one of the 5 live hatchlings we found inside the nest, tangled in roots...isn't it cute?!?!?! :)

See our excited faces?!?! :D :D :D

Just saying hi to baby :D

These two were next...

Some of our Excavation kit: We bring...latex gloves to handle the eggs, measuring tape used to measure the depth of the nest, a GPS for the location, pad and pencils to record our findings....and....LOTS OF WATER!! It gets very very hot and humid...all I can say for excavations besides excitement!! is....SWEAT, STINK, EXAUSTION... 

...AND THERE THEY GO!!! Baby turtles to the Sea...

A little rest stop...

Then we took a nice 15 min swim in the ocean before our walk back to the station, on the hot sand under the sun...

Ohh CRAP.....sorry.....crab!!!