Giant Turtles

During this short nesting season for the Leatherback Turtles, a protected specie, these large females come ashore on the extreme North end of Grenada, back to the place they were born maybe 12 years ago or more. Grenada in the third largest nesting area in the world for these magnificient turtles. We went last night with two of our friends in the branch, the Smiths, to witness this fascinating event. The giant female turtle will inch her way along the sandy beach, mostly at night, using her four flippers to propel her. When she finds a place she is happy with, she begins to dig a hole to lay her eggs. She is so focused on what she is doing that she pays no attention to us. She digs a hole with her back flippers and once it is as deep as she can dig, she begins laying the eggs. The marine scientists who were there gathered all of the eggs into a 5 gallon bucket to bury them in a more secure location away from the predators. Once she finishes laying the eggs, she will toil for about 45 minutes to cover them up and smooth the sand. After finishing the covering up of the eggs (poor thing did all that work to cover up nothing) and the smoothing of the sand with her back flippers, she heads back to the ocean. In a few weeks the hatchlings will emerge and make their way along the same beach and into the water. The females of the hatch, if they survive to maturity, will come back to this spot and continue the cycle of life.