Relocated nest from MB ...This nest was relocated from a spot just South of the Apache Pier in the northern section of Myrtle Beach. Nesting turtle was reported just above the tide line around mid-night. People wpld not leave her alone, were taking flash pictures, touching her, even putting beer cans on her. Horry County Police were called and she was able to finish nesting in peace. Eggs were removed and relocated to 51st Ave N in Cherry Grove, NMB.
Two broken eggs were found in the original nest, these were used for DNA Study.
One deformed egg was also found, looked like two eggs were attached in the middle.
This egg was put in the relocated nest
52 days later, Thursday, August, 13th, a deep hole develops in the egg chamber around 6:30PM
Hatchlings emerge at 7PM...A rare daylight emergence. (see post below)
Inventory is conducted the following Monday night. A crowd gathers around 6PM.
Karen and Lee dig up the egg chmaber.
First egg found is the deformed egg, collapsed and discolored, did not hatch or even develop
Hannah shows this egg along side a normal whole egg
Pipped egg, hatchling died while hatching out of shell
Dead Hatchling
Thank you Lee and Karen for helping with this. Thank you Candy for your pictures. And thank you Hannah for your help.
This nest did not do as well as we had hoped. 103 eggs were in the original nest, 101 eggs were relocated to 51st Ave N, 2 eggs take for DNA (results not back yet)
We found 63 hatched eggs, 38 unhatched or whole eggs of which:
1 egg was deformed when laid, actually looked like to eggs joined in the middle, this egg did not hatch
2 whole eggs were still round and bright white, probably never fertilized
33 whole eggs were discolored and collapsed.....we did not open to find stage of development but I feel most if not all died in early development
2 eggs died during pipping (hatchlings developed, half in shell, half out)
62.38 % hatching success rate.....No idea why this nest did not do well, it could have been the relocation, we need to be extremely careful when moving eggs, it could have been the mother (I am hoping DNA results come back and I can see if she nested before, if so what her success rate was), it could have been the location, sand was moist, roots were found in the egg chamber and around many of the whole eggs, it could have been the sand where the nest was originally laid, it was close to the water line, very moist, could have had bacteria.......
1 egg was deformed when laid, actually looked like to eggs joined in the middle, this egg did not hatch
2 whole eggs were still round and bright white, probably never fertilized
33 whole eggs were discolored and collapsed.....we did not open to find stage of development but I feel most if not all died in early development
2 eggs died during pipping (hatchlings developed, half in shell, half out)
62.38 % hatching success rate.....No idea why this nest did not do well, it could have been the relocation, we need to be extremely careful when moving eggs, it could have been the mother (I am hoping DNA results come back and I can see if she nested before, if so what her success rate was), it could have been the location, sand was moist, roots were found in the egg chamber and around many of the whole eggs, it could have been the sand where the nest was originally laid, it was close to the water line, very moist, could have had bacteria.......
No comments:
Post a Comment