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Scientists Followed a Leatherback Turtle Through Hurricane Florence -- Here's What They Saw (popsci.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: At 10:00 p.m. on May 5, a team of people quietly approached a leatherback lying in the sand on the Florida beach. Working quickly while the female sea turtle laid her eggs, they drilled two small holes in the back of her shell. Through the holes they threaded zip ties, affixing a small transmitter with epoxy on the back for added security.
Over the next few months, members of the non-profit, Florida Leatherbacks, Inc, watched as Isla the sea turtle visited the beach a few more time to lay new clutches of fragile eggs in the sand, before starting her late summer migration north along the East Coast. "We're monitoring where she is right now, and it just happens to be in the middle of a hurricane," Kelly Martin says. Isla is now off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, to the north of where Hurricane Florence made landfall late last week. For a while it seemed like she would get caught in the massive storm as it slid past the coast. She wound up north of the worst of it, but still experienced rough seas over the weekend. Even before the hurricane hit, she surfaced in an area where waves reached 14 feet high.
"Turtles are air breathers, so they need to come to the surface periodically to breathe, but I suspect many dive below the surface to weather the storms," Kate Mansfield, director of the Marine Turtle Research Group at the University of Central Florida, says in an email. "I have tracked turtles through some storms in the past and never saw any sort of movement that suggested they were trying to get away from the storm (or that the storms shifted their paths). The turtles I tracked were larger juveniles -- at that size they can dive 100s of meters deep."
Over the next few months, members of the non-profit, Florida Leatherbacks, Inc, watched as Isla the sea turtle visited the beach a few more time to lay new clutches of fragile eggs in the sand, before starting her late summer migration north along the East Coast. "We're monitoring where she is right now, and it just happens to be in the middle of a hurricane," Kelly Martin says. Isla is now off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, to the north of where Hurricane Florence made landfall late last week. For a while it seemed like she would get caught in the massive storm as it slid past the coast. She wound up north of the worst of it, but still experienced rough seas over the weekend. Even before the hurricane hit, she surfaced in an area where waves reached 14 feet high.
"Turtles are air breathers, so they need to come to the surface periodically to breathe, but I suspect many dive below the surface to weather the storms," Kate Mansfield, director of the Marine Turtle Research Group at the University of Central Florida, says in an email. "I have tracked turtles through some storms in the past and never saw any sort of movement that suggested they were trying to get away from the storm (or that the storms shifted their paths). The turtles I tracked were larger juveniles -- at that size they can dive 100s of meters deep."
In order to avoid the wave action, a few meters below the surface is all you need to get.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
That was really interesting findings. Great science.
Well yes it does. But for other animals they will pierce their ears, or for non-vertebrates or non-animals We do much more to them.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The turtle refused to sign up for Twitter, and laughed at having a Facebook account. It was the only way to get properly sponsored content delivered. Now all the other turtles know what's up, and I expect them to fall in line shortly.
"Here's what they saw?" That is a pure clickbait title. It's about on the same level as "You won't believe what happens next!" or "they came up with a number of conclusions. #7 will blow your mind."
No site that even halfway respects its integrity should use title tricks like this.
Please do not post click-bait. Please don't chase the lowest common denominator.
A few months - that's a long battery life!
That reminds me of a story ...
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That escalated quickly.
The point is that for animals if we want to track them, sometime we may injure them a little bit. If we do this in a way that will have minimal pain, and will not adversely affect their life. Yes they drilled holes in the Animal. But they also filled it back in, and doesn't seem to hurt the Animal in the long run.
For Trees we just nail stuff to them, figuring they don't feel pain.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
It's because normally they live in sewers learning ninja from mutant rats.
The turtle has a Xiaomi phone, has Windows 10 on her laptop, and uses Facebook religiously. So, she really coudln't care less about privacy.
So DUDEs, the turtle scenes were accurate? :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).