“Lucky Lady” - the turtle that got away

My recent post told of a turtle swallowed by a tiger shark. These photos are of our first nesting Hawksbill turtle of the season, the one that got away!

She is a full grown 91 cm long lady with a beautiful coloured carapace and she must have fought hard to survive the shark attack that gave her these horrendous scars.

Lucky lady - the turtle that got away, photo Marcel Mathiot

She must be fairly stubborn too, as she has chosen to nest in the most difficult place - full of roots and debris. Never the less, she persevered and successfully laid a clutch of eggs.

Not the best spot to dig, but she made it, photo Marcel Mathiot

She bore evidence of old tag scars and before she returned to the sea she was newly tagged on both front flippers by Gilberte Gendron from Ministry of Environment (see blog on poaching at grand police) who happened to be driving past at the time.

14 days later to the hour, this same turtle returned to nest on the very same beach just about a 100 meters north of her previous nest. This was confirmed by tag numbers and photographic evidence.

…. News from Patricia