Michael's | World | Through | The | Lens

Two in ten thousand

She is definitely exhausted. Still, after she has laid her eggs she hurries back to the ocean before the sun glimpses on the horizon. Maybe it’s pride that gives her all that energy. She not only belongs to the fantastic family of sea turtles that has remained unchanged for approximately 90 million years, but she is also one of the best.

The temperature of the sand determines the sex of turtles during the eight-week incubation. Clutches further away from the shore in the warmer sand are ideal for eggs to turn into female turtles while male turtles usually hatch from those closer to the shoreline. So, barely born, she had to run farther to reach the water than the boys. And that was just the start of an incredible fight for survival. Only 2 or 3 out of 10,000 turtles succeed and reach adulthood. In the water, travels took her incredibly far, maybe even more than 3,000 km away from the place she was born and to where she always returns to lay her eggs. For the beautiful lady in this picture, “home” is a small beach close to Ras al Jinz (Oman).

http://www.rasaljinz-turtlereserve.com/eco_responsible_tourism.htm

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 at 12:04 AM. It is filed under Nature and tagged with Oman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.