On February 5th, World Vets and the Galapagos National Park rangers were notified about a new sea turtle nest on a very busy public beach in town. This was not a common area for sea turtles to nest. They jumped into action, putting up a barrier and signage to notify beachgoers and prevent disturbance of the nest. (The initial fencing was placed close to the ground to prevent any unwanted predators, with plans to raise the fence near the time of hatching).
Over the next 2 months the nest experienced multiple, unavoidable disturbances as heavy runs created a river though the beach that took down the fence and nearly washed away all the eggs. The eggs became totally exposed, and while we had low expectations that the turtles would hatch after this, the team worked hard to find all of the eggs and moved them to a nearby location out of the path of the water. The nest was constantly monitored.
Miraculously, 2 months after the eggs were laid, round midnight on April 8th, there was exciting news to report! The baby sea turtles emerged from the nest and were able to make their way across the beach to the ocean. The event was observed by a couple of tourists who reported it to the park. World Vets and National Park staff rushed to the beach, and although the turtles had already made their way to ocean, we could see their tiny tracks all over the beach. Reports were that there were 26 in all. We later dug up the nest to verify the count and also determined that there were only 5 eggs that did not hatch. A photo below shows one of the sea turtles taken by a tourist who observed the hatching. (Note: the sea turtles should not be picked up or handled as seen in the photo from the tourist).
This is just one instance of many in which World Vets is taking part in the conservation of threatened and endangered animal species in the Galapagos Islands. World Vets thanks our many faithful donors and supporters for their contributions to this important work.
- Heavy rains washed away the nest.
- The exposed eggs were collected and moved to a nearby location out of the path of the water.
- The eggs were buried in a new nest.
- 26 baby sea turtles hatched! (Note: the hatchlings should not be picked up as was done by a tourist in this photo.)
- The nest was excavated to count the hatched vs. unhatched eggs.
With funding support from: