At the beginning, I have no idea how to make people aware the
danger of turtle eggs and how actually WWF Malaysia and other organization are
trying their best to converse the turtles and their eggs.
Therefore, I find
some turtle conservation website to get some inspire for our game. Although we
knew that a mother turtle lay between 50 -200 eggs once, but the survival rate
among hatchling turtles is very low because turtles take between 45-70 days for
the eggs incubate under the sand. During these days, turtle eggs and hatchlings
are extremely vulnerable, it likely overheat or susceptible to predate from
variety of animals which include raccoons, coyotes, foxes and skunks, crabs,
birds, monitor lizards, ants, crows, ravens, herons, weasels and others animals.
Besides, there are human poachers stealing the eggs for consumption and selling
purpose. From that, we can see that the danger of turtles is commencing from
where they born. They are targeted by predators and poachers when they are not
even hatched and come out to the world.
* For some information: Female turtles
will start to lay eggs when they are mature (every maturity is different from
species) no matter with or without a male present. If there is no male present,
the eggs will not be fertile and at the end to be discarded.
These are
those hatchling turtles and eggs’ predator.
People steal the turtle
eggs and sell to earn money.
Therefore, there are many sea turtles sanctuaries
and hatcheries in Malaysia, which were set up following the alarming declines
in the sea turtles population observed in the late 1950s.
Female may spend two
or more hours out of the water during the entire nesting process. Firstly,
female turtles will scan the area for predators or other disturbances, then get
on land and move with their flippers and finds a spot to nest and start digging
the eggs chamber to lay eggs in. During the time the rangers measured them and
checked their tag in order to record the process of their conservation efforts.
After the mother turtle return to the sea, rangers will dig again to collect
and rebury in a fenced off location to keep out any intruders. The eggs are
marked by using white marker with vital information like the date and number of
eggs and which species of turtle and so on. Some eggs are placed in the shade
and some in the sun because the temperature of the nest determines by the sex
of turtle. The last step is to release the daily hatchlings into the ocean.
* When handling a hatchling for release, please do so with utmost care and let
it trot on the beach first rather than release them into the sea. When a
hatching trots on the beach for first time, it will always remember the beach
and identify it as home even after travelling far and wide. Because every
female turtle will come back “home” when they are mature for lay eggs.
When mother turtle start to lays eggs, ranger will mark down their identity
like species, size, number of eggs.
Ranger will mark it down vital
information and fenced off area of turtle egg nests to keep out any intruders
or predators.
After 45-70days, rangers will collecting hatching
turtleand release them to the sea.
Video by Ashraf Saharudin of Nusantara
Sea turtle tear off during nesting.
*For information, you can see turtle shed tear when they are laying eggs, yet, do they really cry? In fact, the continuous production of tears over the eyes is to protect the dedicated eye membrane underwater and excrete excess salt from the water they drink, of course, the tears also help keep sand out of the turtle’s eyes. The truth is that all sea turtles “cry,” whether they are on land or in the sea. It’s an important part of their physiology.
Do you want to know and experience more? Just come to our booth and game section on campaign day. You will definitely find that it is a very meaningful and joyful campaign. Other than that, peeps, do remember to bring along with your unwanted phone, tablet, laptop and donate to our “Ring A Life” campaign in order to win a price for lucky draw for each phone, tablet or laptop donated and stand a chance to win our grand prize. Join us at:
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, Canteen 2 concourse
16-18th July 2014
9am-5pm
Written by:
Jessi Yue
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