Tracking studies inform conservation efforts
New insights have been gained into the "lost years" of loggerhead turtles.
Tiny satellite tags have tracked months-old animals in the
uncertain period when they leave US coastal waters and head out into the
wider Atlantic Ocean.The data suggests the loggerheads can spend quite some time in the Sargasso Sea, possibly living in amongst floating mats of sargassum seaweed.
The observations are reported in a journal of the Royal Society.
“This has been a fun study because the data suggest the turtles are doing something a little bit unexpected to what everyone had assumed over the past few decades, and it boils down to having the right technology to be able to follow the animals,” said lead author Dr Kate Mansfield from University of Central Florida, Orlando.
Scientists have long struggled to track the earliest years of Atlantic loggerheads (Caretta caretta).
After emerging from their nests on Florida’s
beaches, the infant turtles, or neonates, make a dash for the water and
head out on a great adventure.
