Scientists Track Mating Patterns of Endangered Sea Turtle

In order to focus on conservation efforts for the endangered sea turtles, a team of international researchers have tracked the mating habits of the species. Not much is known about the breeding habits of these species, as they reside underwater far out to sea.

Researchers from the New University of East Anglia along with conservationists have focused on the mating habits of the endangered sea turtles in order to get more details on their mating patterns.

Researchers conducted a study on the DNA samples of turtles on Cousine Island in the Seychelles. This island is an important nesting ground for the hawkbill turtle that has been listed as critically endangered in 1996 by the IUCN. The number of these turtles reduced because of the international trade in tortoiseshell as a decorative material.

It was noticed that the female hawksbill turtles mate at the beginning of the season and have the capacity to store the sperms for up to 75 days in order to use them for laying multiple nests. This indicates that turtles are monogamous in nature and do not re-mate during the season.

"Understanding more about when and where they are mating is important because it will help conservationists target areas to focus their efforts on. It also lets us calculate how many different males contribute to the next generation of turtles, as well as giving an idea of how many adult males are out there, which we never see because they live out in the ocean," lead researcher Dr. David Richardson, from UEA's school of Biological Sciences, said in a press statement.

This study gives a measure of how genetically viable the population is despite being faced with threats like hunting.

The pairing of females with different males indicates there is plenty of the male population. This could be a strong reason for genetic variation in the population, which is important for the population to survive.

"This is an excellent example of how studying DNA can reveal previously unknown aspects of species' life histories," states Karl Phillips, a Ph.D. student in UEA's school of Biological Sciences and the lead author.

The details were published in the journal Molecular Ecology.