A new low-cost sensor designed to look like a sea turtle egg allows scientists to monitor nests remotely and predict when hatchlings will emerge almost day after day, providing valuable information for conservation efforts and the management of turtle nests. Erin Clabough of the University of Virginia and Samuel Wantman of Nerds Without Borders led the research, which will be published Oct. 26 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.
Populations of sea turtles around the world are declining due to human activities. Sea turtle conservation efforts largely focus on protecting vulnerable hatchlings once they emerge, to ensure they head for the sea, rather than the bright lights of cities. Conservationists can count the days since the eggs were laid to predict when they will hatch and then monitor the nest, but these efforts are inaccurate and labor intensive.
In the current study, the researchers used the TurtleSense system to monitor loggerhead sea turtle nests on the Cape Hatteras National Coast to see if they could more accurately predict when the turtles would emerge from the nest. They buried an egg-sized sensor in the nest and attached a cable to a communications tower that remotely transmitted data on the movement of hatchlings in the nest.
The researchers identified a pattern of intense movement of the hatchlings in the nest, followed by a pause, which allowed them to predict almost the exact day when the young turtles would dig out of the sand. Their findings suggest that newborns can sense movement, allowing them to communicate and hang out together in groups. The system also accurately identified non-viable nests where monitoring was no longer needed.
The new TurtleSense system has the potential to reduce the cost and labor needed to monitor endangered turtle nests and help conservationists make better decisions about nest management. The system can also shorten beach closures and allow communities to engage in turtle-based ecotourism, benefiting both the community and sea turtle conservation efforts. Although this study focused on loggerhead sea turtles, the researchers also monitored nests of olive ridley and green sea turtles and observed similar patterns, suggesting that the system will work for a range of sea turtle species.
Erin Clabough adds: “It’s absolutely magical to see baby turtles popping their heads out of the sand and sprinting towards the ocean, but it’s an event that can be very difficult to predict. The TurtleSense system is a creative and inexpensive solution that allows us to remotely detect in real time how baby turtles synchronize their developmental movements in the nest. We can use the system to detect hatching and better predict when hatchlings will emerge on the beach.
Samuel Wantman adds: “As each turtle emerges from its shell, it climbs to join its siblings atop the clutch of eggs, creating a wave of commotion among all the other baby turtles in the nest. When there is no more commotion there is a period of calm, which may be the impetus for all the hatchlings to come out of the nest together.”
Thousands of turtles lay eggs on the Nicaraguan coast
The Secret Life of Baby Turtles: A New System to Predict Hatchling Emergence, Detect Infertile Nests, and Remotely Monitor Sea Turtle Nest Events, PLOS ONE (2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275088
Provided by the Public Library of Science
Quote: Sensor disguised as sea turtle egg allows conservationists to remotely predict nest hatch time (October 26, 2022) Retrieved October 26, 2022 from https://phys.org/news/ 2022-10-sensor-disguised-sea-turtle-egg .html
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