Scientific Activities
Main project work
The nightly beach census work we do is the major part of this
conservation project. We patrol the beach looking for the turtles
in order to protect, identify and count them. The individual turtles
who come onto the beach to nest are identified with small electronic
PIT (Passive Integrated Transponder) tags which are injected into
the muscle of the shoulder. Each turtle receives one of these
the first time she nests and it identifies her with a unique number.
The PIT tag remains in place for the lifetime of the turtle and
is easily detected with a small handheld scanner. In this way
we can identify the turtles who nest on each night, find out how
many times each turtle nests during the season and how many days
apart each nesting event is. A sample of the data we collected
last year is shown below.
This graph shows the number of clutches that individual turtles
laid. 6 turtles laid 1 clutch, 2 laid 2 clutches, 9 laid 3 clutches
and so on. The average number of clutches is about 7 per turtle.
The data we collect permits us to make calculations
on the population size in areas where the turtles are not observed
but the nests can be seen. While we are on the beach we protect
nests from poachers and predators to maximise the number of hatchlings
produced. We also measure some turtles, count eggs, measure the
temperature of nests to determine hatchling sex, and record the
level of human activity on the beach. You can see one of our data
sheets at the bottom of the page.
Measuring nest temperature information using a thermal probe
placed into the nest when the turtles lays the eggs.
Measuring the turtle's shell length.
Data sheet with the information we collect
on each turtle coming onto the beach.
