GTCP 2016/17 First Night Survey

As part of our research, we run night surveys along the Gnaraloo beaches, to estimate nest detection bias for the Day Surveys. Last night we had our first official Night survey! This meant that last night the team, Ludmila Segato, Liam Turner and Skip Green, went to Gnaraloo Bay Rookery at around 21:30. The night surveys run for 6 hours and this is the best time to actually see the female turtles come up on land and lay their eggs. And thereby can actually confirm that there were nests, to then be seen by the interns the following morning.

It was a successful night! The night patrol saw a little female loggerhead come up to lay her eggs. The high tide has been ridiculously high, so poor thing was trying to climb up the soft sand dunes. With no success, she made her nest right by the high tide. We hope all the best for her nest. The tide has already inundated some of our previous nests. But not all is lost! We are still expecting to get many more turtles coming on land to lay their precious eggs.

All in all, it was a successful night… one flat tire (again!?), but nothing we can’t handle. Now GTCP surveys are full of action! Happy Turtleing!!

Sophia Dahl