00:00:14
Sea turtles are miraculous.
00:00:16
First, they've been around since the late Jurassic,
00:00:19
roughly 150 million years ago.
00:00:22
Cohorts of the dinosaurs, sea turtles have survived through the challenges of eons,
00:00:27
existing still today, where many others have ended their evolutionary run.
00:00:31
Second, throughout the centuries and up til today,
00:00:35
every living adult sea turtle has overcome the odds,
00:00:38
existing as a consequence of chance,
00:00:40
skill and capability.
00:00:42
The gauntlet each sea turtle faces in the course of its lifetime goes thus:
00:00:47
First, deposited as a clutch of leathery, ping pong ball-sized eggs
00:00:52
into a nesting pit dug by its mother high on the beach,
00:00:55
Of the 50 to 200 eggs laid,
00:00:57
roughly 20 percent will never hatch.
00:01:00
Roughly a month and a half after having been laid,
00:01:03
the surviving eggs hatch
00:01:04
and the young turtles, each small enough to fit in the palm of your hand,
00:01:08
Squirm to the surface, emerging from the sand en masse
00:01:11
and making their desperate dash for the sea.
00:01:13
Along the way, debris, pitfalls, crabs,
00:01:17
gulls, raccoons and other threats
00:01:19
will claim roughly 50 percent of those
00:01:21
who rose from the sand.
00:01:23
For those that actually reach the surf,
00:01:25
they trade one set of threats for another,
00:01:27
as they first face the repelling force of the waves,
00:01:30
and then find a whole new host of predators awaiting them.
00:01:33
various fish, dolphins, sharks and sea birds,
00:01:37
as the young turtles come to the surface for air.
00:01:39
For their first few days of life,
00:01:41
should they count themselves amongst the living,
00:01:43
the vulnerable turtles swim frantically forward.
00:01:46
Ultimately, they will often look to settle in a patch of flotsam.
00:01:50
preferably a patch of floating seaweed.
00:01:52
Now, for the next several months, they will seek to avoid those that would eat them.
00:01:56
find that which they might eat themselves,
00:01:58
and not fall to the pressures of challenging weather or unfortunate currents.
00:02:03
In this phase, roughly 50 percent of those who reach the surf
00:02:08
Ultimately, with the passage of years,
00:02:11
the survivors will increase in size,
00:02:13
from that of a dinner plate at year one to that of a dinner table,
00:02:16
in the case of one species at least, the Leatherback,
00:02:19
a decade or so later.
00:02:21
With size comes some measure of protection.
00:02:23
The only truly worrisome predators now are some of the larger shark species --
00:02:27
bulls, tigers and whites --
00:02:29
and the occasional killer whale.
00:02:32
At approximately two decades of age,
показать еще
русский▼
English
