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Nest site selection by sea turtles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

G. C. Hays ,
A. Mackay ,
C. R. Adams ,
J. A. Mortimer ,
J. R. Speakman  and
M. Boerema
G. C. Hays
Affiliation:
School Of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales Bangor, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd, LL59 5EY.
A. Mackay
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB9 2TN.
C. R. Adams
Affiliation:
Department of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA.
J. A. Mortimer
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA. Caribbean Conservation Corporation, PO Box 2866, Gainesville, Florida 32602, USA.
J. R. Speakman
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB9 2TN.
M. Boerema
Affiliation:
The SanibelCaptiva Conservation Corporation, PO Box 839, Sanibel, Florida 33957-0839, USA.
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Extract

The distribution of 38 nests of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) on beaches on Sanibel and Captiva islands, south-western Florida (26°26'N 82°16'W), and of 70 first digging attempts by green turtles (Chelonia mydas) on Ascension Island (7°57'S 14°22'W), was quantified. For loggerhead turtles on Sanibel and Captiva, nests were clumped close to the border between the open sand and the supra-littoral vegetation that backed the beaches. This spatial pattern of nests was closely reproduced by assuming simply that turtles crawled a random distance above the most recent high water line prior to digging. In contrast, green turtles on Ascension Island clumped their first digging attempts on the uneven beach above the springs high water line, crawling up to 80 m to reach this beach zone.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 75 , Issue 3 , August 1995 , pp. 667 - 674
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1995

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