Scientists are using fake eggs with GPS trackers to save vulnerable sea turtles
Fake eggs
In Australia's Great Barrier Reef, seagulls are becoming a major threat to native species.Decreasing the survival rates of several struggling species, seagulls prey on turtle hatchlings and the young chicks of native birds on Heron Island off the coast of Gladstone.
Allowing for a very slim margin of survival, “predator swamping” overwhelms sea turtles that synchronise their egg-laying.
Technology is playing a key role in Sea turtle conservation as per conservation biologist Helen Pheasey has embraced the latest in 3D printing and GPS tech for her doctoral project.
Tracking the illicit trade of sea turtle eggs involves sneaking into the poaching underworld which Pheasey is achieving by placing 3D-printed decoy eggs.
“Then what she’s done is track the routes of trade, basically, in the black market,” Valverde says.
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Seeking to get ahead of the problem and reduce poaching behaviour, Valverde expects the illegal trade information to be published when the project wraps up later this year.
“Especially in Costa Rica, they make a drink that is basically tomato sauce, lime and hot sauce. It has a few components, and they add that to the egg and they just chug it raw,” Valverde says.
“The reason people do it — it’s mostly men, I would say — is because there is this notion that these eggs may be an aphrodisiac,” he says.
“There’s no proof of that; everything we’ve seen shows that’s not the case. But the lore is that this happens, so many still continue to consume eggs in great numbers.”
According to Roldán Valverde, scientific director at the Sea Turtle Conservancy in Florida and a professor at Southeastern Louisiana University, “In general, sea turtle populations across the globe have been rebounding.”
“They are not up to historical levels, but they are rebounding. And the one thing in common to all conservation projects is the protection of the eggs and the beaches.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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