Mass Turtle Hatching In Brazil Produces Over 200,000 Babies
by Jeremy Hance
Biologists recently documented one of nature’s least-known, big events. On the banks of the Purus River in the Brazilian Amazon, researchers witnessed the mass-hatching of an estimated 210,000 giant South American river turtles(Podocnemis expansa).
The giant South American river turtle, or Arrau, is the world’s largest side-necked turtle and can grow up to 80 centimeters long (nearly three feet). Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation marked and released 15,000 (around 7 percent) of the newly-born hatchlings in the Abufari Biological Reserve. Future surveys of the species will allow researchers to collect data on the individually-marked turtles in an effort to better protect them in the future…
(read more: http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0211-hance-mass-turtle-hatching-photos.html)
photo: C. Ferrara/Wildlife Conservation Society
Yesssss! More turtles ftw!