Tortugitas Verde

We had a pretty exciting start to our week with the unexpected exceptionally successful hatch rate of our relocated green nest on the beach. We had a green turtle nest in Costa de Oro about a week before I got here, bummer for me that she did not come back to renest because I really wanted to see her. Because the hatchery was not finished yet the eggs were relocated closer to our house so we could keep a close eye on them. Upon my arrival to Costa de Oro, I think, this was one of the first things that Hilary showed me. Last week, I knew the due date was quickly approaching and so I asked Lotti what the protocol was. She had me go home and find the nest (Hilary, the log got moved because they were no where near the log). Maddie (our project supervisor) and Wilson (the local coordinator in San Miguel) came over to help me check on the nest. We opened it up and weren't sure what to expect, the nest seemed really cold but thought we would give it a few more days.

Baby Green, so adorable and extremely feisty (photo credit: Lauren)

Lotti came by a few days later and we went to have a peak in the nest. We triangulated the nest and I started to dig. Because the nest had been cold a couple days before I was not really expecting to find any turtles in it. So, needless to say, it was an awesome surprise when I was digging down into the nest and felt a turtle! It scared me at first and I jumped back because I was not sure what I felt, after digging around a little more I realized it was a baby turtle.

 

Lauren and Steph were sent running back up to the house to grab gloves, a bucket, and obviously a camera! I started pulling babies out of the nest and while I was trying to count I just got to excited and totally lost track. I ended up putting on another glove and we did the exhumation right on the beach so that Lauren and Steph could see.

All the baby greens! (photo credit: Lauren)

During an exhumation we count the amount of egg shells and take a look at the eggs that did not hatch to see why. Lauren and Steph were able to see one stage 1 development egg, with a sweet baby fetus in it, and a stage 3 baby as well. Since my hands were a tinsy bit gross from playing in undeveloped turtle eggs Steph and Lauren were dubbed the turtle photographers. (Have not stolen any pictures from Steph, yet, so these photos are all compliments of Lauren). Our hatch success was at 88%, which has definitely pumped me up for our hatchery to begin hatching!!!

 

 

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