Friday, March 8, 2013

The boys are back in town...


This week saw more excitement mixed with sadness as we found the first leatherback of the season. She had been killed by jaguars, 2 1/2 miles down the beach from base.

As sad as it was seeing such a huge, magnificent creature lying lifeless on the beach, the opportunity to set up some cameras on the kill was too great to miss. A fairly sizable team of us trudged down the beach armed with camera traps and boundless enthusiasm, and after much fretting and re-positioning, the cameras were set.

It was with great trepidation that we returned to collect the cameras the following day. I was trying so hard not to get my hopes up; we had never got footage from a leatherback kill before, but I was not disappointed with the results. 

 Alex and Luca together at the kill.

We got incredible photos and videos on both cameras.  Not only was it our first footage from a leatherback kill, it showed two adult male jaguars, Alex and Luca, together at the kill. We had seen jaguars together at kills before, but never two adult males at the same time so it was very exciting stuff.

Alex returned in the morning, snapshot taken from video.

There’s no doubt that the big boys are back, and we are now eagerly, if somewhat apprehensively, waiting to see what the rest of turtle season will bring.

Rachel, Field Staff

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