We Have Turtles!

Some Los Delfines residents are involved with Sea Turtles in Costa Rica. Below is newsletter #5 that discussed the ongoing efforts to safe Sea Turtles - and other stuff too! Thanks to tannnews@gmail.com for the update.

We Have Turtles!

At 5:40 this morning, it was discovered that six Olive Ridley sea turtles had already emerged from the nest we had planned to begin monitoring today at 6 AM. All six managed to leave a nice track in the sand but, sadly, none made it more than about 12 m., apparently having been scooped up by predators. There were large bird tracks, lots of crab tracks and holes, and even some small mammal tracks – any one of them could have been the reason the turtle tracks suddenly disappeared.

Now the good news! A dozen more turtles were discovered in the sand at the top of the nest, and although there had already been some mortality there as well, nine of them managed to make it into the ocean, with a little help from our first shift volunteers There are still many eggs in the nest, so there should be more hatchlings emerging soon. So, it’s business as usual over the next day or two at least for those who have volunteered to monitor the nest, until we are sure that there are no more left to hatch.

We are aware that many of you would love to have been there, but notification was deemed impractical at the time, partly because it was very early and partly because we had problems with the cell phone. We were, quite frankly, caught off guard and, based on our preliminary observations, we felt that the situation was rather urgent, so we put the interests of the turtles ahead of yours, and simply concentrated on making sure that as many survived as possible. Hopefully, we can spread the word when the next emergence occurs, so that you too can be there to help and observe.

What is a Blue Iguana?

Some of our TANN members have recently reported what looks like a ‘blue iguana’ at the east end of the Los Delfines portion of the beach. Apparently, this guy is not only beautiful, he’s an expert thief, having very carefully extracted and then eaten a banana from her beach bag. You can see the stem of the banana in the picture - it gives you some idea of the size of this guy!

We consulted with a couple of biologists, and both have confirmed that it is not an iguana at all, but a black ctenosaur, known in these parts as a Garrobo. Apparently, some males get ‘blue’ during the mating season. Makes sense – woman trouble can make a guy ‘blue’!

Outing?

There has been limited interest expressed in an excursion, so for those who have expressed an interest, we will simply set an date and time and inform everyone well in advance, and you can join us if you want. We’ll do the Panica River Trail. We may take a professional guide along, so stay tuned!