Turtles! Turtles! Turtles!

Obviously you would all be more interested in hearing about the turtles I’m working with instead of my visa challenges so here’s the lowdown on the turtles.

Currently there are 7 species of sea turtles in the world.  At the Green Lion turtle sanctuary on Nusa Penida island in Bali we care for Hawksbill sea  turtles.  Hawksbill turtles are endangered- only 15,000 mothers are believed to exist. 

When the mother turtles lay their eggs on the shore (male sea turtles never return to the shore after birth) they will lay up to 200 eggs. These eggs must gestate in the sand for 2 months before hatching.  While gestating the eggs are faced with many challenges including lizards and humans who will both disturb and eat the eggs.  If the eggs are shifted the embryos die.  Once the turtles hatch they wait for all of their siblings to hatch so that they can all leave the nest together.  Once they leave the nest the turtles run to the ocean avoiding attacks from birds, crabs, and lizards. The turtles follow the light- the reflection of the sun or moon on the water to get to the sea.  But if the eggs have been laid in a commercial spot the turtles may get confused and they venture towards the light of the community and eventually die.  Half of all the turtles hatched will die on their journey to the ocean. Only 1 of every thousand turtles hatched will live to sexual maturity (20 years old). The goal of the turtle sanctuary I am working with is to care for the turtles from their egg laying through 9 months to increase their odds of surviving.

When a turtle egg nest is identified Green Lion will go to the nest and carefully transport the eggs to the turtle sanctuary.  There the eggs are buried in a sand tank. Right next to the tank is a water tank.  When the eggs hatch a light is shone over the water tank to lead the turtles to the “sea”.

All of the turtles at the sanctuary are kept in tanks with those the same age/size.  We have 24 tanks holding about 100 turtles.  For the little turtles born on November 6 there are about 20 turtles to a tank.  For the 3 month old turtles there are as many as 10 turtles to a tank.  The 6 month old turtles are kept 1-3 per tank. Even with our care and feeding turtles will die.  Young turtles are fragile and may not be viable before 3 months.  The turtle sanctuary has sent turtle cadavers out to animal pathologists to check and make sure that we didn’t do anything to cause turtle deaths. So what do we do for the turtles?

Twice a day we hunt for crabs, feed the turtles, clean the turtles, and clean the turtle tanks.  Crab hunting can be done  1 of 2 ways.  At low tide we walk out into the wet sand and grab small crabs running on the sand and under coral.  Alternatively we walk out on the dry sand with a bamboo stick and a piece of coconut shell.  When we see a fairly large (finger size) hole we put the bamboo stick in until it reaches the bottom.  Then we dig around the stick with the coconut shell till we reach the the bottom of the where there’s hopefully a live crab.  We use these crabs to teach the turtles how to hunt for food.  Some of the turtles are getting fairly good at hunting. 

Additionally, all turtles are fed raw fish.  Depending on the turtles’ age we chop the fish into bits.  The younger turtles get something that looks like fish mush.  When the older turtles are fed they actually use their fins to hold the fish and break it with nails on their fins.  Up until now I thought sea turtles only used their fins for swimming. While the turtles eat we clean their tanks.  Then before the turtles return to the tanks we bathe the turtles by washing their shells. The 3 month olds get a sponge bath that includes their fins and head.  The 6 month olds get their shells scrubbed with a toothbrush.  These older turtles manage to clean their fins and head themselves.  Why do turtles need a bath at all?  At sea turtles are cleaned by the current and the coral around them.  In our tanks the water is stagnant so we have to help them clean off.  On Fridays we weigh and measure the 6 month old turtles to assess their progress. Currently there are 30 people volunteering- 27 of them women, 27 volunteers are under 30. So these turtles have young women who cook, clean, and bathe them.  Not a bad deal eh?

3 month old  

6 month old  

3 month old getting a bath