Life at Caño Palma: you never know what you’re going to get

It wasn’t just the gigantic female leatherbacks (Dermochelys coriacea) that were encountered on night surveys this week. All too rapidly 70 days since our first nest was laid has passed and out of the sand emerged 38 tortuguitas, a great surprise and training opportunity for all. Morning census teams now have the added bonus, or should we say the not so pleasant job of excavating the hatched nests…Amongst the swarm of flies, uncovering larvae and rotten eggs with fungi and bacteria accompanied with retched stenches is definitely not up everyone’s alley, but getting in there and getting the job done yields us important information on the outcome of the eggs laid. Our first nest excavation rated amongst the top ten of bad nests with an unfortunate tangle of grass roots growing through the eggs resulting in a Russian roulette of varying degrees of ‘mankiness’. However, all data from nest excavations is important in order to establish the fate of nests and thus where and how to direct our conservation efforts to help this critically endangered species.

Life at Caño Palma: you never know what you’re going to get