Posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 by pelf and filed in Turtle Talks, USA

So, apart from visiting and hanging out at Dr. Peter Pritchard’s Chelonian Research Institute while in Florida, he also took us to the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.

The Archie Carr Information Center was a new building, but it was very well-equipped with information boards and interactive learning displays.

Information board

There were also huge posters put up on the walls of the seemingly small information center, but every inch of wall space was maximized.

Sea turtle game

After visiting the Information Center, we proceeded to Melbourne Beach where some students from the University of Central Florida do some turtle research work. Every night, loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green (Chelonia mydas) turtles come up to lay eggs on the 20-mile (32 km) section of coastline from Melbourne Beach to Wabasso Beach. What is most interesting is that 25% of all loggerhead turtles and 35% of all green turtles nest in the United States occur in this 20-mile zone!

Excavating a loggerhead turtle nest

At night, we were scheduled to walk the beach to watch a loggerhead turtle lay eggs but a storm was rolling in our way, so we stayed in the field house and listened to a powerpoint presentation given by Professor Emeritus Ehrhart from the University of Central Florida. Not long after, some of his students who went on a beach patrol earlier brought back some loggerhead turtle hatchlings that should be released that night.

Loggerhead turtle hatchlings

In the middle of the very interesting presentation, we received a phone call from one of the students that there was a loggerhead turtle nesting on the beach. Immediately, we stopped talking, grabbed our headlights, jumped into the field vehicles and went to the section of the beach the loggerhead turtle was. That night, we observed 2 loggerhead turtles and a green turtle nest, and we released some hatchlings into the ocean.

Loggerhead turtle nesting

The next morning before we left, we went to Melbourne Beach. And what we saw was just so spectacular — lots of turtle tracks and body pits on the beach!

Melbourne Beach

I was harassed by thousands of sand flies while sitting and watching the turtles lay eggs, but seeing how active the turtles were the night we were there made it all so worthwhile :)

More pictures taken at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.

  1. Nicole Price says:

    Sand flies can be an awful nuisance. Any way, a small price to pay for such an exciting time that you seem to have had.

  2. pelf says:

    Exactly my thoughts! :D Small price for such an adventure :vodka:

  3. John Hunter says:

    Great photos, thanks.

  4. uncannyman says:

    quick turtle question: how are turtles able to go back to the exact same spot they were born to lay their eggs? Is this even true in the first place or just some nature myth?

  5. pelf says:

    Yes, it’s true that turtles usually go back to their natal beach to lay eggs. But it is not known how they do it.

  6. almond says:

    I heard/ read it’s cuz they mental mapped the sand where they were once hatched.

  7. jonnyjayhawk says:

    i love how there are like 1000 of those little guys when they hatch, and the game board cracks me up. good blog… i’ll be back for sure.

  8. vasea says:

    sand flies ruin my vacation :mad: 2 weeks on seaside -only one day at the beach

  9. pelf says:

    Aww.. That’s too bad, huh? :frown:

  10. Scott says:

    those guys are so cute :biggrin: