I sent an email to the Barbados Turtle Project with the question on how to best keep them. They did not respond back before the end of day on Monday. I put the hatchling into a cardboard box and placed him in our hall bathroom which has no light filtering in from the windows/outside. He squirmed a lot during the day and I was worried that he would be too exhausted by the time dusk would come around. But, he made it all day and Gary and I went down to the see and released him. The waves were strong and we released him in an area where he had to navigate around rocks - so, we were worried that even then we were not doing the right thing! This simple activity that Gary and I did together was so much fun - for both of us. It reminded me that there are so many things in life that people can do and enjoy without having to spend money.
I did hear back from the Turtle Project group on Tuesday, which was a good thing because I had picked up another hatchling that morning. This hatchling looked exhausted to begin with, so I was very fearful for his living through the day. But, the email told me to put him in a bucket/box with some sand at the bottom and then to cover it with a warm towel - that this seemed to calm them down so that they would sleep. Turtles sleep! The email also said that someone from the turtle project would come and pick him up that afternoon to release him. I really didn't understand why they were asking me to do this - why couldn't I just release him myself? Then, I got to worrying that the little thing wouldn't make it - and there would be this dead turtle when they came by later to pick him up. But, anyway - I was supposed to have sand in the bottom of the box. I went to the shore - and dug up enough sand to cover the bottom of the box and on my way back - I discovered another very healthy hatchling! Whew! Now at least when they came to pick up the hatchlings at least one would be alive. The warm, damp towel - did the trick - I no longer heard them scratching against the side of the box. Gary asked me when he got home wasn't I going to release these two and I said No, that they were coming by to pick them up at some point. This is when I got to thinking that maybe hatchlings could stay a number of days in the box before being released? One of many questions that I didn't know the answer to.
For some unknown reason, I was not sleepy Tuesday night. So, I stayed up and worked around the home. My cell phone rang at 10:30 pm - just as I was putting the last dish in the drain. It was the turtle project team and they were on their way to pick up my two hatchlings.
I met the group at the front gate - and let them in to park inside the condo's parking lot. The group consisted of two young ladies that I would guess were in their early twenties. One of their names was Carla. She was going to take the box from me and then go and release the turtles and I asked her if I could tag along - and she said yes. So, we walk through the inside of the condos around the swimming pools towards the back gates. I was surprised to see that both hatchlings were all of a sudden very active. That was a relief to me to know that the one didn't die. One of my questions had been answered - they do seem lethargic at times, but you should still rescue them. Just as we were approaching the gate to go to the beach, we notice there are ALL these hatchlings around this sidewalk night light! We start picking them up and putting them in the box. Then, once we opened the gate - they were all over the place - in the sand - headed toward's Carla's flashlight. We were picking them up and trying not to step on any of them at the same time. They were all headed in the wrong direction. They were going towards the lights at the condos instead of the ocean. There were a lot of clouds last night - and so the moon was not shining brightly.
Carla started walking in the direction that the turtles seemed to be coming from. She even saw a crab take one of the hatchlings into it's crab hole - and guess what she did? She stuck her hand in the crab hole and worked her fingers in there until she had grabbed the hatchling and pulled him out. She grinned and said, "This is the lucky one." I'd say so! It would have taken a lot of money and nerve for me to have done that. Anyway, she was very experienced and it seemed just minutes before she said - "Ah, here is the nest."
The moment I had been waiting for - to actually see the hatchlings coming out of the nest. I looked over and there were about three of them with their heads and front fins sticking out of the sand. So cute! She sat down by the nest and started working the sand away from the hatchlings. She explained to me that a lot of times the roots from nearby trees and plants grow in the nest - and the hatchlings get caught in the roots and can not make it out of the nest. She was helping them. She pulled probably 6 or so live hatchlings out this way.
Then, she kept digging with her hand - very carefully - not in a hurry. I watched in silence, didn't want them to be bothered by my presence. I was seeing the experts at work! Who cared what time of the night it was - I had always wanted to see this and experience it and it was happening! I was so glad that I had asked to tag along. Very perturbed that I hadn't brought my good camera along, though! No way to record this momentous event. I did have my iphone V3 and was able to take a few still shots that I am including with this story. Another tidbit that I have learned is that it is not good to take pictures of the turtles with the flash on. She dug down for about a foot and a half and then, she started pulling out the empty egg shells. Her partner had come over and was now seated on the ground opposite her - and she would hand over these empty shells to the partner - who I found out later - was taking them and counting them. They explained to me that they needed to know approximately how many eggs were in this particular nest.
Carla let out a girly "oooooeeee" and brought out her hand where one of her fingers had jabbed into an undeveloped egg - ooooooeeee. She brought this egg out as well as 5 more like that - she set these aside in a different location. At the end, when she could not find any more egg shells, then she took each of these 6 eggs that hadn't hatched and opened them and poured out their contents into the nest looking for any embryos. 5 of the eggs had no embryo and one looked different with some globs of matter - they classified it as unknown. She then took all the empty egg shells and placed them back inside the nest and then she put all the dirt back into the nest and then she put some leaves on top. It was as though nothing had ever happened at that location.
So, all in all - there were 175 empty egg shells, 1 unknown egg and 5 unhatched eggs in that one nest!!! Who would have ever thought this could be? The interesting thing to me was that if someone had just walked up by the nest, you wouldn't have known it was an active hatchling nest - there were no empty shells - and not that big/deep a hole. So, I learned from this, that the hatchlings hatch from the shells down a foot or so in the sand - and after they have hatched, then they start working their way up to the top of the sand - they use each other in their struggle to reach the top.
So, my little box that started out with 2 hatchlings had quite a few in it. Sorry for the quality of this picture, but it was the best I could do with no flash on the iphone V3.
After we had saved all the hatchlings that we could find, we went to the sea shore and Carla sat down and started taking the hatchlings out one at a time. At first, I didn't understand why she didn't just empty the box and let them go, but then I realized that she was counting them. I am very delighted to say that we saved 78 hatchlings last night! :) I asked Carla about whether it mattered where we released them in terms of rocks in the ocean or the waves being too strong - and she said no, that for the most part that didn't make a difference. Only if the tide were very low would the hatchlings have trouble making it over all the rocks. She told me that the hatchlings immediately go on out to the open sea. They don't really understand what happens to them at this point in time. They do believe that the hatchlings eat off the sea sponges and that at some point, the small turtles eat among a reef and when they become mature - that is when they magically swim back to their original nest site to lay their own eggs! It is also better to release the hatchlings the day they are discovered, their chances of survival are better.
I hope you enjoyed this blog - it was one of my favorites to write. I feel so blessed to have gotten to experience this opportunity.
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