How deep is deep enough? Analysis of sea turtle eggs nest relocation procedure at Chagar Hutang Turtle Sanctuary

Siti Najwa-Sawawi; Nur Munira Azman; Mohd Uzair Rusli; Amirrudin Ahmad; Muhammad Fahmi-Ahmad; Nik Fadzly

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.05.021

How deep is deep enough? Analysis of sea turtle eggs nest relocation procedure at Chagar Hutang Turtle Sanctuary

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2021 Sep;28(9):5053-5060. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.05.021. Epub 2021 May 13.

Authors

Siti Najwa-Sawawi^{1

2}, Nur Munira Azman¹, Mohd Uzair Rusli³, Amirrudin Ahmad², Muhammad Fahmi-Ahmad³, Nik Fadzly¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia.
² School of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia.
³ Institute of Oceanography and Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia.

Abstract

Sea turtle eggs incubation involves natural and artificial incubation of eggs, and indeed the depth will be varied and presumably affect the development of hatchlings. For nest relocation, the researcher needs to decide on the depth to incubate the eggs. Sea turtle eggs clutches may vary between 40 and 120 eggs for the green turtle, thus using a single value as the standard procedure might affect the quality of hatchlings. Here we quantify the dimension of the natural (in-situ) nest constructed by the nester and the artificial (ex-situ) built by our ranger during nest relocation. We suggest a linear regression calculation of Y = 0.2366X + 59.3267, better predict a more accurate nest depth based on the number of eggs to imitate the natural nest.

Keywords: Conservation; Endangered species; Hatchery management; Hatching success; South China Sea.