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Turtle time along the KwaZulu Natal coastline is a very
important time for the turtles.
It's the time of the year when the female loggerhead turtles and
leatherback turtles come ashore to lay their eggs.
They have been doing it for millions of years and they
are doing it now on our coastline.
The females turtles attain nesting maturity after about 15 years
and when they are ready to lay their eggs they return to
almost the exact spot they were hatched to lay their eggs.
When the female arrives at the beach where she is going
to lay her eggs she waits until the tide is high and it's
dark before coming ashore.
She then struggles up the beach till she finds a suitable
spot to lay her eggs and then digs a shallow hole to lay
them in with her hind legs.
Once she starts laying she does not stop until she has
laid between a 100 and a 120 eggs. She then covers the
nest and makes her way back to the ocean.
In about 10 days she will return and lay another batch
of a 100 eggs. She will follow this routine for a couple
of weeks until she has laid about a 1000 eggs.
The eggs lie in the sand and hatch after 70 days.
It's strange how the gender of the turtle is determined.
The mother has no say, its the temperature of the sand
that determines which turtle is male or female.
20-24 degrees centigrade and the hatchling is male. Over
29 degrees and its a female.
Nature thinks of everything!
For the poor hatchlings as soon as they are born life becomes
a slog. The first hazard they face is running the gauntlet
from their nest to the sea.
They wait until its dark and its cooler outside and then
make a beeline for the surf.
Once they get into the water they run into the ghost crabs
that are waiting for them. Many don't survive the crab onslaught.
Once in the sea they fall prey to all types of fish.
It is estimated that only 1 out of every 1000 turtles hatched
makes it to adulthood,
There are only a few beaches in the world where turtles
come ashore to lay their eggs.
Other than the South African beaches , they also come ashore
in Sri Lanka and also along the coast of America.
The Kwazulu Natal Wildlife authority have been monitoring
turtle numbers for 41 years and are proud to advise that
the SA turtle numbers are the only ones where a steady
increase in the numbers of turtles nesting has been measured.
Turtles leaving our shores make for the Agulhas current where
they feed on jelly fish and storm sails and slowly gain weight.
A fully grown female can weigh in excess of 900 kilograms.
The leatherback turtles feed out to sea whereas the loggerhead
turtle stays closer inshore.
Experiments have been carried out and certain turtles have
had satelite transmitters attached to their shells to
monitor their whereabouts.
One turtle that was monitored for about three months before
her battery ran out swam from the beaches of northern
Kwazulu Natal out into the Agulhas current and down the
coast of Southern Africa as far as Cape Point where she
then swam south towards the south pole. She was last
monitored about 200 kilometres off the coast,
The devices attached to her also measured the depths to
which she dived and how long she stayed down. Turtles
are capable of staying underwater for about 35 minutes.
The beaches along the coast of Kwazul Natal are patrolled
daily by guards to ensure that nests are not disturbed by people.
As it takes a long time for turtles to mature to breeding age
it is necessary to protect the dwindling stocks in the seas
around our coastlines.
Help the turtles by not catching them or buying their meat.
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Contact Details
Email Geoff Fairman
6 Bothma Street, Monte Vista 7460 South Africa
© 2009 Turtle SA - All Rights Reserved - Cape Town Garden Route Tours
