To improve conservation strategies for threatened sea turtles more knowledge on their ecology, behavior, and how they cope with severe and changing weather conditions is needed. Satellite and animal motion datalogging tags were used to study the inter-nesting behavior of two female loggerhead turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, which regularly has hurricanes and tropical storms during nesting season. We contrast the behavioral patterns and swimming energetics of two turtles, the first tracked in calm weather and a second tracked before, during, and after a tropical storm. Turtle #1 was highly active and swam at the surface or submerged 95% of the time during the entire inter-nesting period with high estimated specific oxygen consumption rate (0.95 ml min−1 kg−0.83). Turtle #2 was inactive for most of the first nine days of the inter-nesting period where she rested at the bottom (80% of the time) with low estimated oxygen consumption (0.62 ml min−1 kg−0.83). Midway through the inter-nesting period turtle #2 encountered a tropical storm and became highly active (swimming 88% of the time during and 95% after the storm). Her oxygen consumption increased significantly to 0.97 ml min−1 kg−0.83 during and 0.98 ml min−1 kg−0.83 after the storm. However, despite of the tropical storm turtle #2 returned to the nesting beach, where she successfully re-nested 75 meters from her previous nest. Thus, the tropical storm had a minor effect on this female's individual nesting success, even though the storm caused 90% loss of Casey Key nests.
Changes of loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) dive behavior associated with tropical storm passage during the inter-nesting period
Currently Viewing Accepted Manuscript - Newer Version Available
Maria Wilson, Anton D. Tucker, Kristian Beedholm, David A. Mann; Changes of loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) dive behavior associated with tropical storm passage during the inter-nesting period. J Exp Biol 2017; jeb.162644. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.162644
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