World Turtle Day: Loggerhead turtle travels 37,000 km in search of nesting site
By Newsmeter Network Published on 23 May 2020 7:46 AM GMT
Hyderabad: This year was great for turtles as in April, after seven years, the Odisha coast saw a mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtles. On World Turtle Day (May 23) today, here is an inspiring story of a turtle which travelled 37,000 km to find its nesting site on Western Australia's Pilbara coastline.
The turtle, named Yoshi, was tracked by South African scientists through a satellite device. According to the scientists, the turtle was in captivity for 20 years. Yoshi was in Cape Town's Two Oceans Aquarium after she was found with a damaged shell in 1997. She was cared by the aquarium authorities and two years ago, the Aquarium authorities released Yoshi in an ocean near Cape Town.
Attached with a satellite device, Yoshi started travelling. According to the scientist, she was 180 grams and a loggerhead by variety, but scientists were not sure to which loggerhead community she belonged to. So scientists had no clue where she would go.
After a great swim, Yoshi reached Australia and finally, stopped at Pilbara coastline in March. So the scientists assume it was her original habitat.
Indian Forest Officer Praveen Kaswan shared the inspiring story on his twitter on World Turtle Day and said, “Incredible journey of a loggerhead turtle to home. This is Yoshi & she traveled 37,000 km from Africa to Australia to find her nesting grounds in March. Also incredible to observe how these creatures move to such a length and why we need to protect nesting grounds.”
[amp-tweet tweetid="https://twitter.com/ParveenKaswan/status/1264035853149638657"]
Incredible journey of a loggerhead turtle to home. This is Yoshi & she traveled 37000 kms from Africa to Australia to find her nesting grounds in March. Also incredible to observe how these creatures move to such a length & why we need to protect nesting grounds. #WorldTurtleDay pic.twitter.com/7WgyTkE2k8
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) May 23, 2020
He also shared inspiring stories of other turtles and the problems that the turtles are currently facing due to habitat loss and trafficking.
According to a research quoted by World Wild Life Fund, around 52 per cent of world’s turtles have eaten plastic.
“In fact, loggerheads ate plastic 17% of the time they encountered it, likely mistaking it for jellyfish. This figure rocketed to 62% for green turtles probably on the hunt for algae.” said WWF, in its statement.
