 Leatherback pictures! |
Leatherback pictures!
Central America Caribbean » Saint Kitts & Nevis » Saint Kitts
April 19th 2007 by Matt and Lauren
"the crawl"
Often around 7 feet across, this is the track left by leatherback sea turtles as they make their way out of the ocean to lay their eggs, then, exhausted, slowly drag their giant bodies back toward the... [more]
Leatherback pictures!
Central America Caribbean » St Kitts and Nevis » St Kitts By Matt and LaurenApril 19th 2007
Matt and Lauren Brock Hello everyone! I uploaded these pictures about a week ago after a long and wonderful night of beach monitoring. We've been wanting to put some text with it but don't seem to be getting around to it very quickly and I'm excited to post the pictures... so I'm going to go ahead and do it without the text! There's actually quite a bit of information in the captions, and soon we can post a couple more, along with an actual blog entry!
** If you want to see the pictures slid-show style, just click on the first picture, then use the options at the top of the box that will pop up to scroll through each picture/caption. Hope you enjoy!
filling in the nest...
They use their powerful back flippers to dig a deep hole in which they lay their eggs. When they're finished, they carefully fill in the hole and then get their giant front flippers involved too, crea... [more]
Throwing sand!
As they disguise their nest, they often throw sand everywhere! This is not a picture that would normally be taken, as a white light flash is believed to disorient the turtles. However, this one had so... [more]
her 'shell' was cut up too...
These scratches and scars are from the breeding process. She isn't really red...that is the reflection of the red-light headlamps we use during tagging to minimize the disorientation that could be cau... [more]
Some insight into her 'battle wounds'?
This turtle's left rear flipper is nearly non-existent. It appears to have been bitten by a shark some time in the past (hence her nickname 'cookie', given to her the first time she was tagged here, t... [more]
What's left...
This is what remains of her left rear flipper. It's not a lot, especially in comparison to a 'whole' flipper, but she has adapted amazingly well and still uses it for digging and covering her egg cham... [more]
time to head home
After nearly 2 hours (from the time she left the ocean until now)this giant momma slowly makes her way back to the sea, where the salty water will exponentially lessen the effort it takes for her to m... [more]
The tag....
The turtles are tagged for future tracking and reference. The tag is similar to the ones we use for juvenile hawksbill sea turtles, just a little bigger. It's inserted into an area about half way betw... [more]
our beach signs
As of right now the beaches here in St. Kitts are all "public", 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. From the perspective of endangered sea turtle preservation, this means the routine occurence of sand ... [more]
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July 13th 2007 - Jenelle: amazing
wow! the pictures and comments on the leatherback turtle pictures was amazing! thanks for sharing all that information and the photos! you two are being able to experience such great things!
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The text and photos of article remain the copyright of the Author (Matt and Lauren Brock). Under no circumstances should the photos or text be used without the express written permission of the Author (Matt and Lauren Brock). If you wish to use or publish photos or text from this article - please
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