Busy Busy Busy!

Things at the centre have been very busy the past few weeks. With hatchlings every night now we have saved 80 babies from the claws of the hungry crabs and greedy birds! We have had a lot of media visits too taking interviews and photos for short films and newspaper articles. Sometimes this is a little distracting from the work that we are doing, but if we are raising awareness in Tukey about Sea Turtles and protecting them then I think it's worth the hassle.

Hannah Turkish News Photo 

Newspaper article. 

We also have 3 new turtles, all with the same problem and none of them technically needing our help. 3 male turtles have been brought in from Dalyan River and Cache for aggressive behaviour towards humans, with one of them inflicting some pretty serious wounds to humans. This is not normal behaviour. Turtles are not aggressive creatures usually and it is not common for them to bite people. 
Unfortunately, particularly in Dalyan there is a lot of feeding of the turtles by tourists and local restaurants. This causes the turtles to associate humans with food, so when they see a human swimming in the river and they are hungry, they bite.The simple solution is that this feeding of the turtles needs to stop.

One of our newest turtles trying to escape!

The other side to this story is that the aggression is from male turtles, as it is still the mating season (just about), the hormones being released from the males hypothalamus are in overload and these boys are feeling angry, emotional and to put it bluntly they are horny. This doesn't happen to the females so they haven't got any interest in biting people quite so much. 

After having so many naughty turtles come to us, the local officials have finally decided that it is time to do something about the feeding, and it gives me great pleasure to announce that the plan is to fine any fishing boats or tourist boats found to be feeding the turtles with any food including crabs. This is definitely a step in the right direction from stopping the turtles biting people and also from keeping them out of the fresh-water river which is really really bad for them.

Treating the turtles
 

I haven't mentioned this much before but it is a vital part of our work here at the centre, and without it, many turtles would only get worse. Our main patient at the moment is Anil the male loggerhead who has been with us for almost a month now with wounds from shark, boat and other turtles. When he first came here there were various infections and bacteria in the wounds. So, we have been taking him out of his tank almost every day to clean and check his wounds and now he is doing much better and his wounds are healing really well.

Anil's flipper and shell wound healing nicely.

The rehab we provide speeds up the healing process and allows the new shell to be free from infection.
Sometimes however our turtles are too sick and we need to give them a lot more care, including antibiotic injections and tube feeding.


For the time being, nesting females has slowed considerably and it seems that we are only getting a coulple more nests a week now. This is normal, and by mid August the nesting season will be over. 




Total nests: 288
Total saved hatchlings: 80


Next time: Sea Turtle Diving Data & Freshwater Trionyx Nile Turtles.