I bet you guys and gals thought the Australia Zoo had some impressive animals, but wait until you look at this small post. After careful examinition of Mike's trusted Lonely Planet Australia, we found out that we were not that far from a town called Bargara, which had its own turtle rookery in nearby Mon Repos. A visit here would mean a possible chance to see breeding sea turtles in the wild and perhaps even some of their little hatchlings. Needless to say, your dynamic always wanted some "live" Animal Planet action, so we made plans (and prayed) to make this happen. As a result, straight from our return from Fraser Island at 19:00, we thrusted our little Yaris across the coast to get to the Bed & Breakfast close by Mon Repos. The very friendly lady gave us the key to the room and we arrived in Mon Repos on time. Now driving at night in Australia is dangerous due to all the nocturnal animals on the road so we were happy that we arrived in one piece. Back to the turtles.
Once we arrived in Mon Repos at the turtle rookery, we got assigned to a group to go out and see the turtles. And at about 21:30, we sneaked behind our guide along the beach as a big loggerhead turtle was about to lays its eggs. These turtles crawl up the beach at night to avoid predators, delicately dig a hole with their hindfeet in a pear-shape form and lay approximately 110-130 eggs per clutch (they lay eggs multiple times). Then they cover the hole with sand and pat it firmly down to secure the eggs and keep them cool. Now, a digging turtle is easily disturbed but once they start laying eggs, we were able to observe this magnificent creature. We even got to help to relocate the egss to a higher position where they could not be swallowed by a high tide. And, finally, we even got to see some turtle hatchling and guide them into sea with a flaslight (that's how they orientate themselves, normally with the light of the moon over the sea's horizon). Although there were a lot of people, it was still an amazing experience to see something like this in the wild. We consider ourselves very lucky to have witnessed this. More turtle talk and pictures will follow from our trip to Heron Island. What a MAGICAL night....
One of the many baby turtles that got into the sea safely (despite this, only 1 in a 1000 grows up to become an adult so they are becoming more and more endangered).
I bet you guys and gals thought the Australia Zoo had some impressive animals, but wait until you look at this small post. After careful examinition of Mike's trusted Lonely Planet Australia, we found out that we were not that far from a town called Bargara, which had its own turtle rookery in nearby Mon Repos. A visit here would mean a possible chance to see breeding sea turtles in the wild and perhaps even some of their little hatchlings. Needless to say, your dynamic always wanted some "live" Animal Planet action, so we made plans (and prayed) to make this happen. As a result, straight from our return from Fraser Island at 19:00, we thrusted our little Yaris across the coast to get to the Bed & Breakfast close by Mon Repos. The very friendly lady gave us the key to the room and we arrived in Mon Repos on time. Now driving at night in Australia is dangerous due to all the nocturnal animals on the road so we were happy that we arrived in one piece. Back to the turtles.
Once we arrived in Mon Repos at the turtle rookery, we got assigned to a group to go out and see the turtles. And at about 21:30, we sneaked behind our guide along the beach as a big loggerhead turtle was about to lays its eggs. These turtles crawl up the beach at night to avoid predators, delicately dig a hole with their hindfeet in a pear-shape form and lay approximately 110-130 eggs per clutch (they lay eggs multiple times). Then they cover the hole with sand and pat it firmly down to secure the eggs and keep them cool. Now, a digging turtle is easily disturbed but once they start laying eggs, we were able to observe this magnificent creature. We even got to help to relocate the egss to a higher position where they could not be swallowed by a high tide. And, finally, we even got to see some turtle hatchling and guide them into sea with a flaslight (that's how they orientate themselves, normally with the light of the moon over the sea's horizon). Although there were a lot of people, it was still an amazing experience to see something like this in the wild. We consider ourselves very lucky to have witnessed this. More turtle talk and pictures will follow from our trip to Heron Island. What a MAGICAL night....
One of the many baby turtles that got into the sea safely (despite this, only 1 in a 1000 grows up to become an adult so they are becoming more and more endangered).
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