Playing on the beach with my kids Hatteras IslandI met a man who was walking his dog on a barrier island off North Carolina’s coast.
We were standing right next to a turtle nest that the National Park Service had cordoned off with a sign notifying the federal government.
“Wouldn’t it be great to know when the baby sea turtles will hatch?” I thought. I mused and he smiled and said, “Well, we’re working on it.”
The conversation led to the formation of a partnership to create TurtleSense, a new, affordable way to remotely monitor turtle nest activity. You can read more about TurtleSense here. Recently published studyHere’s how it works.
Eric Kaplan was one of the participants. He is the man I met at the beach and also the founder of The. Hatteras Island Ocean CenterSamuel Wantman and David Hermeyer, both retired engineers from the San Francisco nonprofit Nerds Without Borders; IBM master inventor Thomas Zimmerman; and veterinary students Joshua Chamberlin.
As a developmental neuroscientistI studied how baby turtles might use vibrations and motion to coordinate nest activity.
If they can predict when the baby turtles will emerge, humans can protect sea turtle hatchlings best as they travel from the beach to sea. However, it has been hard to predict when the turtles will emerge.
By placing a simple, disguised turtle egg sensor in the nest, it was possible to detect when baby turtles would emerge.
A hazardous journey
Except for when the females arrive ashore, sea turtles live their entire lives in the ocean. Each summer, you can do this a few timesto lay their eggs. After they have laid their eggs, they will bury them in the sand. They return to the water.
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For several weeks the eggs remain incubated under the sand. The hatchlings emerge from the sand as a large sibling group and then start to scramble toward surf. This is called the “Hatchlings” journey. A very vulnerable time in a sea turtle’s life.
Beach debris must be avoided by hatchlings, Birds and crabsThey may wait to be preyed upon. They might also be able to become Disoriented by light pollutionFrom hotels and beach houses, and do not reach the sea.
All six types of sea turtles that have been found in the US are listed. The Endangered Species Act protects these species, so beach communities are required to ensure that baby turtles receive proper protection – including on their journey to the water.
Scientists often use time to calculate the date of the hatchlings’ emergence. Volunteers may be able to monitor the nest if it is located in an area with a lot of people. This will allow them to determine when hatchlings might emerge.
However, this can take as much as two weeks. This requires a lot volunteer time.
What signals hatchlings are destined to emerge?
We tested the TurtleSense monitor in the North Carolina nesting seasons 2013-2018 Cape Hatteras National SeashoreIt is located near the northernmost point from which the eggs of the loggerhead sea Turtles are laid on the US Eastern Seaboard. Our work was coordinated by federal and state agencies.
Hatteras beaches see heavy recreational use. Off-road vehicles are used in certain areas, while fishermen also frequent the beaches. The closure of beaches to protect turtle nests has led to Conflict over the balance of competing interests.
Our goal was find a way for turtles to be protected while still allowing other legitimate uses of the beach.
An algorithm was used to monitor the eggs. Accelerometer – a device that measures vibrations in a system and how quickly they are changing.
The accelerometer was connected to a microprocessor on a very small circuit board, which, in turn, was embedded in a plastic ball the size of a turtle egg – about as big as a pingpong ball.
We placed the monitor in 74 turtle eggs on the mornings that the nests were laid. The top 10 eggs were not included.
The cable connected the sensor with a small communication tower located at a distance of twelve feet (4 meters) from the nests. Researchers could remotely monitor nest activity by using motion data transmitted from the tower to cell towers.
Scientists think that baby turtles might use temperature cues to hatch because they are born below the sand. Their emergence should be at nightWhen it is safer, they will run to the sea.
Our research suggests that motion or vibrations may be important in sibling communication and timing of emergence. However, we are still not sure how this happens.
Sea turtles may Synchronize nest activityIn a way that is similar to popcorn popping in hot oil. The popcorn kernels will start popping when they are all evenly heated. However, not all at once.
Similar to a sea turtle nest where the temperature is right but there is no motion activity, this could indicate to baby turtles that their siblings have hatched.
Scientists have found evidence that sibling vibrational cues are used by some species to coordinate hatching activity. Tree frogsAnd Land turtles. However, it is more difficult to detect the potential communication in buried turtle eggs.
The TurtleSense data was used to create a method to predict when a nest of baby turtles will make the journey to the ocean. The monitor data allowed us to detect hatching activity and observe that turtles hatch in waves. They then quieten down and move together, almost as if in sync.
We estimate that hatchlings will emerge from their nest in an average of 3.7 days after hatching starts. We can adjust this prediction date once hatching is complete, narrowing down the window.
In general, turtles from deep nests will emerge two nights after hatching has completed. The hatching of hatchlings in shallower nests can take place one night after hatching.
Infertile nests can also be detected by the system, which will indicate that there is no hatching activity. Monitoring can focus on other areas when a nest is found to be infertile.
Enhancing turtle protection
Inspiring to see newly-hatched sea turtles walk towards the waves and emerge is seeing them.
My colleagues and I hope TurtleSense will make it easier to track baby turtle emergence dates. The sensors can also help with protective measures like monitoring nests or turning off lights close to water.
This research revealed previously unknown developmental events in sea turtles’ early lives. It also raised intriguing questions about the processing of vibrations by animals and how they might use them to communicate.
The plans to build the sensors or communication towers are open-source and can be downloaded online at Nerds without Borders website.
Erin ClaboughAssociate Professor of Psychology University of Virginia
This article was republished by The ConversationUnder a Creative Commons License Learn more Original article.
