T & T Part 8: Leatherback Turtles!

One of the reasons we went to Trinidad at the time of year we did (in May) was because I hoped to see Leatherback Turtles laying eggs on the beach.   

I've always loved turtles... from the Painted Turtles that live in the swamp here at home, to the Green Sea Turtles we snorkeled with on St. John a number of years ago.  

So I was pretty excited when we went to Matura Beach.

Matura Beach was an hour or so drive from Asa Wright Nature Centre, and we did some birding along the way.  Birding is good in Trinidad... even from the car during a rainstorm!

Ringed Kingfisher

Once we arrived at the beach, Mukesh, our wonderful guide, proceeded to set up a fine picnic supper for us at the pavilion.  Some more rain showers passed thru the area, but we were comfortable under the roof.

My husband and I took a walk down to the beach while it was still light.  We met Frances, one of the Nature Seeker guides.  He told us quite a bit about Leatherback Turtles.  He may have noticed I was excited, because he teased me not to "jump around and make a lot of noise when a turtle came on the sand because I might scare her away".   I think maybe he was just as excited as I was though.  He said he has been doing this for 25 years but still loves it.  We could tell he does by the way he talked about the turtles.

Then we had to wait for it to get dark.  The female turtles wait for the protection of darkness before they come on shore.  (By the way, male turtles never return to land after they hatch).  The sky had cleared and we enjoyed the stars of the southern hemisphere while we waited.  Many people had arrived - cars and even a couple of buses full of Trinidadians, and a few other tourists such as ourselves.  

Lucky for us, Frances was to be the guide for our group.   He told us to wait there while he went to the beach to watch for a turtle.  Once she started digging, he would come get our group and we would quietly walk down to where she was.  It wasn't too long before he came back to lead us to where a turtle was beginning to dig.  We were allowed to use a red light, but only if really needed... mostly we walked in the growing darkness.  

There are some things that have to be seen to really know what they are like.  The Sequoias,  the Grand Canyon, and the Rocky Mountains come to mind.  Now that I've seen them, Leatherback Turtles are also in that category.  

I was not prepared for the size of our lady Leatherback, nor do my photos really show it.  And, watching this huge creature use her back flippers to dig a perfect hole to lay her eggs in was amazing - something you need to see in person to truly understand the magnificence of it.

Until she started laying eggs, we only had the light of Frances' red flashlight to see by and were not allowed to take flash photos.  Once a turtle begins laying eggs she goes into a trance-like state and Frances said flash from cameras would not bother her.  So, all of my photos were taken during that time.

Leatherback turtles lay on average 110 tennis ball-sized eggs.  They typically only breed every 2 to 3 years (although they can breed annually).  One female can lay up to 9 clutches in one season, as often as 9 days apart.

As I said, while they are laying eggs nothing bothers them, so Frances encouraged us to touch her.  

Their skin is leathery, and they have a layer of fat under their skin to insulate them from the cold northern waters they migrate to while searching for food.  Jellyfish are their main diet, and they can eat their own weight of it in a day!  The turtles can weigh from 550 to 1540 pounds according to one source I found; and up to 2000 pounds in another.  However much they weigh... they are LARGE!  From front to back they can be 6 to 7 feet.  

That's about the same as the height of a man, so the photo above doesn't really show how big she truly was.  This next chart will give you a better idea.

She was pretty amazing to see in real life.  (I did manage to restrain myself from yelling or jumping around in my excitement!).

It was not an easy event to photograph-- all these photos were taken with flash in an almost completely dark setting.  My photos also don't show the ocean ebbing and flowing in the background with the star-lit sky overhead.  Other Leatherback Turtles were coming out of the water nearby as well.  We could just pick out their dark forms against the lighter colored sand.  It was magical.

Our lady was almost done laying her eggs.  I took a few more photos of her while I still could.

Then she started to cover up her eggs, which we could watch using Frances' red light again.  Frances is an amazing person... as I said, you could tell he loved the turtles and he also knew a lot about them.  He is part of a group called the Nature Seekers, which was founded in 1990 to protect the turtles on Trinidad and Tobago.  Here's a link to an article about them and info about their tours here, if you'd like to read more about it.

While the main purpose of our trip to Trinidad and Tobago was to see birds; watching the turtles that night at Matura Beach was one I will long remember and be thankful I was able to experience.