28.10.2019

About me and more. Turtles and Zakynthos – mutual attraction Description of Caretta Cyprus turtle for children

And if you want to compare the Nile turtles that live in the Dalyan delta with Caretta-Caretta, then you)

One of the attractions of Dalyan is the Caretta-Caretta sea turtles, which have chosen Iztuzu beach to lay eggs.

Some information about Caretta-Caretta, gleaned from posters of the rescue and rehabilitation center sea turtles:
The Caretta Caretta is a sea turtle that lives in the Mediterranean Sea. The turtle lives in the sea and comes to land only to lay eggs. It can swim underwater at a depth of up to 200 meters. Can remain under water continuously for 15-25 minutes.
Turtles are carnivores. They have no teeth, but the jaw is powerful and the palate is very sharp. They feed on fish, crabs, crayfish and all other small creatures.
At 25-30 years of age they reach sexual maturity. Out of 100 turtles, only 3-5 lucky ones survive to puberty. They have too many enemies, one of which is human. Turtles die getting entangled in fishing nets or plastic bags thrown into the sea...
The female lays eggs once every 2-3 years from May to July. Lays eggs in holes/nests dug in the sand at a depth of 50-60 cm. As a rule, there is more than one nest; the female makes from 3 to 5 nests. Laying in different nests takes place at intervals of about 15 days. There are an average of 70 eggs in one nest. After 45-65 days, the young begin to hatch. At high temperature(+32) females hatch, at low (+26) - males. At the time established by nature, the cubs, having hatched, climb out of the nest and, obeying intuition, head to the sea.
In Turkey, one of the main places for laying Caretta-Caretta eggs is the beaches of Iztuzu, Patara, and Belek. These places have the status of protected areas. Interestingly, sea turtles, no matter where they are, always return to the beach where they hatched. And it is on this beach that eggs are laid. To continue their offspring, they, obeying instinct, travel thousands of kilometers to return to the beach where they themselves were once born...

On Iztuzu beach, there are posters at almost every step showing the nesting sites and urging tourists not to harm the turtles, which are on the list of endangered animals.

The sign indicates that the egg-laying site is located underneath it. In the area from the sun loungers to the white line (on the right in the photo), tourists are asked not to set up beds, not to put up umbrellas and not to dig holes. This territory belongs to turtles...

As far as I understand, it is practically impossible to see Caretta-Caretta outside the tour (Those who want to see turtles will have to go on a special tour. We didn’t go, but as part of another tour we came across a very responsive captain, who responded to our complaints about the fact that we were coming to Dalyan, but never managed to see Caretta-Caretta, changed the route and took us to the place of “hunting” for turtles.
Locals By feeding turtles, they developed conditioned reflexes and now successfully use this to entertain tourists. Turtles are lured with blue crabs tied to a rope and thus shown to tourists. Crabs are caught here in the delta.
Here it is, the blue crab

This is for us) Crab baked in foil. Not bad. But Kamchatka crabs are a long way off...

And here comes the crab lover (she’s the one in the first photo)

The turtle moved quite briskly, apparently young and full of strength. Capturing it turned out to be very problematic.

And here it turned out so scary. Causes an association with bird of prey. The turtle's head is large, hence one of its other names - loggerhead sea turtle.

We also met Caretta-Caretta at the center for the rescue and rehabilitation of sea turtles. But that is another story...

This little one Turkish Venice we visited this year.

"Dalyan" means fishing in Turkish.

There are also a lot of legends about the river. One of them is about twins, a boy and a girl. About how the girl Biblios fell in love with her brother Kaunos. When she revealed her feelings, her brother had to leave the city. A girl, out of unrequited love, decides to die, throw herself off the biggest cliff. But the goddesses of spring waters do not allow the girl to die. They turn the girl into the Dalyan spring.

The place is actually very beautiful.

Of course the weather that day was rainy. This one was a bit unlucky. The excursion costs 65 euros. We bought it at the hotel from tour operators. But outside the hotel it is 2 times less. It took 3.5 hours to get to this picturesque place. The price of the tour included meals.

1. Blue crab fishing

This is where we caught blue crab. For bait.

We caught these beauties, we could take pictures with them, and then release them into the wild. Back to sea. After fishing, we were offered a crab lunch for an additional fee. When we bought the tour, we were told that a crab lunch was included in the price. But it turned out differently. For one serving 7 cu. + drinks and beer were also paid.

They taste sweet, tender, juicy, well, very tasty. (You could also make a wish).

After such lunch we went to look at the Caretta-Caretta turtles. And suddenly we hear from the guide... That you may not see turtles.

On the way to the turtles we admired:

2. Lycian tombs

Another name is "Royal Tombs". It’s beautiful, of course the tombs are empty. But an architectural monument.

And so we arrived at the habitat of turtles... And in reality we did not see any of them. Maybe the weather was bad.

3. Visiting turtles

We didn’t see any turtles, but we visited one of the most the most beautiful beaches iztuzu. Where is the Aegean Sea.

Sunbeds were also paid, and for some reason no one told us about this either. But the weather wasn't too good. Therefore, it was not possible to swim in the sea.

A species of sea turtle regularly observed: Caretta-Caretta, Caretta-Caretta turtles are on the list of endangered animals. The point is that they for a long time were considered a delicacy not only in Far East, but also in some European countries(for example, France and Italy).
These marine reptiles have lived on Earth for 95 million years. Adult turtles reach sizes of 115-150 cm, while their weight is about 70-90 kg.....
The Caretta Caretta lays eggs only once every two to three years. Turtles go out onto the sand and, using their hind legs, dig several holes, then, choosing, in their opinion, the most suitable one, they lay eggs there. One turtle can dig up to 80-100 holes, but it will lay all its eggs in only one of them. The process of laying eggs lasts for hours and experts say that the female turtle positive emotions at this moment he does not experience it at all.
This tedious procedure for turtles lasts about 60 days (from May to July). And from July to September small turtles begin to appear. They say that males are displayed at a temperature of 28.5 ° C, but for feminine warmth more is required - 32 °C.
Cubs hatched on the appointed day
Moreover, they say that they still need to sit in the sand for 26 hours, which is probably why the supervisors feel the place of masonry so carefully - the palm goes vertically into the sand in several places in turn.

If there is “something suspicious”, they use their palms to scoop it horizontally to the sides - in layers.

Probably for fear of hurting the kids who decided to get out on their own :)

If they don’t find anything, they bury everything again, make the appropriate notes in their notebook and place a wire frame over the masonry - until next time.

Yes, so the kids get out of the hole and, guided by the moon, head towards the sea, carried away by instinct. During the period when small turtles are hatching from eggs, it is forbidden to kindle a fire or light a light, because it can deceive the hatchlings and they will go astray. They should have time to get to the water before dawn and the heat sets in. Those who are late are destroyed by the hot rays of the sun or end up as food for birds. One of their most dangerous enemies on earth is the fox. Of course, even once at sea, the cubs cannot be considered completely safe. Having not reached a certain size, they serve as tasty food for fish.
Instinct leads adults back to the place where they were born. Having hatched in one place, they return there in order to give life to a new generation.
There are 17 beaches in Turkey where sea turtles lay their eggs, among them the most important are, for example, Iztuzu, Patara, the Gösu River delta, Belek - all of them have the status of protected areas.

I actually disagree about Belek, but it’s not for me to judge.
Well, we came here knowing that Caretta breeds here and that we need to run in the morning (we’ve read too much, but what about sh!) to the beach and peer at the people walking past.

Oga. Only when we went out to the beach, we completely forgot about it - after all, it’s a sea! It's half past six in the morning and very warm. And the sea is gentle and the air is warm and my temperature has been 38.2 since yesterday.

And here, literally 25 meters from us, it is obvious. And we are in water up to our chests.
In general, they caught us by surprise, but we grabbed our cameras and ran :)
And there, special guys write down in a special notebook how many pieces from which hole number when they got out.

An assortment of people lined up in two ranks and cheered with the very welcoming cries of the kids, of which there were four.

The guys shout at the onlookers so that they don’t inadvertently disturb them :) They chased me away when I was standing half a meter to the side of the highway - you never know, maybe the kid wants to turn?

In general there were four supervisors. What about the bullshit? Responsible work!
One takes notes.

One - with an important plaque on his chest, like, the main one.

He makes all the decisions about all the movements of the supervisors in the turtle case.
One - raises and lowers and, if necessary, carries into a common pile no longer needed wire frames, which are installed above the masonry while the baby is still in the sand.

And he also carries a bucket.
One - I don’t know why, probably for company.
The bucket is a separate issue: we watched four kids moving towards the water. One of them was very weak. At all:(
They put it in this very bucket. They probably took it to the turtle cemetery :(

While the turtles are crawling towards the water (and it’s funny, the closer they are to the water, the faster they run, they even jump :) it feels like they feel it, even though they were born just a few minutes ago :)), the supervisors are busy with a very important task: they carefully dig up masonry - them former house, everyone checks to see if there is anything left there, they count the peels, put them back and bury the masonry.

And they don’t go anywhere until the turtles swim away :)

And even if a turtle, which itself is still the size of 3/4 of a cigarette pack, turns over, falling off a pebble on the beach, it doesn’t need help; a specially trained guy helps it in some strange, but probably more in an effective way: he doesn’t turn her over, he puts his finger on her, helping her tighten her little snares and turn herself over :)

As soon as the baby finally and confidently floats away, they collect their things and go to the next clutch.
The whole crowd is behind them.

Loggerhead or loggerhead turtle (lat. Caretta caretta ) is another member of the sea turtle family that has suffered greatly from human activity. You can meet him in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In addition, loggerheads are frequent visitors to the Mediterranean Sea and have even visited Russian territory a couple of times - they have been seen in the Barents Sea, in Peter the Great Gulf and in the Kerch Strait.

Like the hawksbill turtle, this turtle has a heart-shaped shell, only its size is slightly larger - on average from 90 to 110 cm, and the largest loggerhead had a carapace 122 cm long. Its color can be olive, red-brown or brown. The lower part - the plastron - is of a lighter shade.

The loggerhead's head is quite large (it's not called the loggerhead turtle for nothing!). It is round and short, with a massive jaw, with the help of which the turtle crushes the strong shells and shells of its inhabitants depths of the sea. The upper part of the head is covered with large scutes; near the eyes there are two pairs of prefrontal scutes. There are also 5 pairs of costal scutes on the back of the turtle. Its front paws have blunt claws. Interestingly, the male is quite easy to distinguish from the female by the presence of a long tail.

Loggerheads live almost all the time at sea. They even sleep on the surface of the water, slowly drifting after the current. Mating also occurs here - sometimes with one, and sometimes with several partners. Pregnant females swim to the shore, wait until it gets dark, and only then come to the surface to lay eggs.

The largest number of nesting loggerhead turtles can be seen on Masirah Island in Oman - according to rough estimates, there are at least 30 thousand of them. In addition, loggerheads also liked the coast of Florida - 6-15 thousand females nest here. Many turtles come ashore in Australia.

flickr/paulmichaels79uf

There are usually at least a hundred eggs in one clutch. The incubation period lasts from 47 to 61 days. Little turtles do not immediately get out of the hole - they sit in the sand for some time and gain strength. And they will need strength, because they need to have time to get to the ocean, avoiding meeting with seagulls, crabs and other predators who have gathered for lunch.

However, this danger is not so terrible for the species as a whole - nature has provided for everything, which is why one adult turtle makes at least 4-5 clutches per season. That's just taste preferences She couldn’t take the person into account. And although the meat of the loggerhead is tasteless, and its shell is not suitable for making souvenirs, the loggerhead turtle still found something to please people with - its eggs.

What they didn’t cook with them! They added it to confectionery products and made delicious desserts. And in Cuba, they generally preferred not to wait for the turtle to lay eggs, and they caught pregnant females in order to smoke their eggs directly in the oviducts, and then sell them as a kind of sausages.

Unfortunately, the result of such activity is quite predictable - loggerheads are included in the Red Book, where the status of their species is assessed as vulnerable. National laws Greece, Cyprus, the USA and Italy protect loggerhead turtles, and the collection of their eggs is prohibited almost throughout the world.

Zakynthos is home to the large Caretta Caretta sea turtles. In June they are busy laying eggs, and the rest of the time they swim to the delight of tourists. Not far from Laganas (a locality on Zakynthos) there is a small island of Marathonisi, the only inhabitants of which are turtles.
2: Lagonas Beach

3: Loggerhead sea turtle or Caretta caretta (lat. Caretta caretta) is a species of sea turtle, the only representative of the genus Loggerhead.

4: Adults are about a meter long. This species of turtle is listed in the Red Book due to the once popular delicacy of their eggs.

5: We set sail on the boat. View of Laganas - this is a very flat part of Zakynthos.

6: Turtle again. There are really a lot of turtles swimming, but almost all adult turtles are equipped with small beacons and not at all for tourist purposes. However, the tourism business takes advantage of this. The boat catches up with the beacon and everyone waits, watching the turtle, when it surfaces. The animal must inhale once every 15-20 minutes, and since, as a rule, at the moment when the turtle is close, it has been under water for a long time, it was not necessary to wait more than 4-5 minutes.

7: Sailing to Marathonisi

8: Swim around it to see several caves

10:

11: Task: find the seagull

12:

13:

14: Landed at Marathonisi, there is a nice sandy beach

15: On this island behind an iron grid there was such a house, in all likelihood it was an abandoned church. I didn't find any information about this. There is a courtyard with vineyards, stairs leading up, fences and stone benches. Obviously a churchyard, it is not known what time it was.

16: And there used to be something like a pier in the sea from the yard, but now it’s destroyed, there are stone blocks lying there. It was probably destroyed by a very strong earthquake in 1953. When almost all of Zakynthos fell into ruins