headline round-up! here’s some recent good news that crossed my feed:
A great nesting season for olive ridley sea turtles in Bangladesh (via Mongabay, May 2023)
Red wolf puppies born in the wild for the second consecutive year, and a captive born pup integrated into the wild litter (via Wolf Conservation Center, May 2023)
Thousands of critically endangered Polynesian tree snails released in in Tahiti and Moorea (via Smithsonian Mag, May 2023)
They’re all sea turtles because I am still a marine biology nerd at heart.
Donatello is a short bean :)
All of their siblings are all some of the largest sea turtles in the world while they are one of the smallest.
Listen! I know sea turtles cannot tuck into their shell. But I had this idea- so let’s say that Draxum fudged Donnie’s DNA a little to allow for this. Donnie was planned to be his infiltrator after all.
Also:
Bug Time
Leo never looked at Donnie the same after this
Raph chased Miki around the lair for an hour after being woken up to an oar smacking him in the face.
Some Raph and Miki bonding. Raph loves making clothes for his siblings, even if he doesn’t show it all that much
Yesterday I got to live my childhood dream of snorkeling and diving the great barrier reef. Aside from seasickness and ear problems while diving, this was an amazing experience. The colors here are like nothing I've seen before in my life. I'm now desperate to find ID guides on corals and reef fish and to learn more. I'd been hoping to see minke whales (aka guided missiles when they're breaching) but seeing a green turtles more than made up for it. I hope that more of these places are conserved and protected, as they show such a wealth of marine life.
Habitat- Central Atlantic Ocean; Central Pacific Ocean; Indian Ocean; Mediterranean Sea
Size (Weight/Length)- 230 kg; 120 cm
Diet- Seagrass; Algae; Sponges; Small fish
Cool Facts- Being the only member of its genus, the green sea turtle is a gentle giant. Surprisingly, these turtles are not named after their shell color like most sea turtles and instead are named after their green colored fat under their carapace. Green sea turtles are mostly herbivores, acting as lawnmowers for lagoons. Most beaches that these sea turtles use for nesting are fiercely protected by local people, often seeing the turtles as a point of pride for their community. The eggs are carefully relocated for temperature control, warmer eggs become female and cooler eggs become male. With warming temperatures, wild green sea turtle hatchlings result in a disproportionate number of female turtles. In addition, floating trash, boat strikes, and poaching are the most common cause of death for these turtles, even above their natural predators like sharks.
Rating- 12/10 (Their shell is a living ecosystem.)