The Return of the Sea Turtle to Padre Island
Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Season 1, Episode 566 , Segment 3
Paris Climate Agreement, City Council Diversity, Turtle Nesting
Episode: Paris Climate Agreement, City Council Diversity, Turtle Nesting
- Jun 5, 2017 11:00 pm
- 14:42 mins
Guest: Donna Shaver, PhD, Chief of the Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery, Padre Island National Seashore The most endangered sea turtle on earth is called the Kemp’s ridley. Right from birth it leads a precarious life. When it’s time to lay her eggs, a female Kemp’s ridley will travel hundreds of miles to a beach somewhere along the Gulf of Mexico – usually the same beach where she was born. She’ll drag herself through the sand and lay her eggs, hopefully somewhere predators and human beachgoers won’t disturb then. When her hatchlings emerge, they scramble back to the water, always at night, to try and avoid predators. By focusing on this period of the sea turtle life cycle, scientists with the National Parks Service have had tremendous success bringing the Kemp’s ridley species back from the brink of extinction.