Leatherback turtle's 12,744 mile migration

[babylonsister]

Leatherback turtle's 12,744 mile migration

By Paul Eccleston
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 22/01/2008

A turtle has set a new record for the longest recorded migration journey through the ocean.



The tagged female leatherback turtle crossed the Pacific from west to East and then part of the way back again.

It was tracked by satellite for 647 days and covered at least 12,774 miles before the signal was lost.

The turtle's epic journey took it from Jamursba-Medi beach in Papua, Indonesia where it was first recorded nesting, to Oregon on the Pacific northwest coast of America.

Of vertebrates that travel through the ocean, the leatherback's journey was the longest ever recorded.

The leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) is the most widely distributed marine reptile on the planet and is found in warm open seas across the world including the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.

But they have also been seen in freezing waters off Argentina, southern Chile, and Tasmania as well as the subarctic northern latitudes off Alaska, Nova Scotia, and the North Sea.

They are massive creatures and can span nine feet weight from the tip of one front flipper to the tip of the other and can weigh 1200lbs.

Adults migrate from their temperate feeding and foraging areas to tropical breeding grounds and tagging is gradually unlocking some of the secrets of their migration paths.

more...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/01/22/eaturtle122.xml

[malaise]

1. Amazing

K & R

[AtomicKitten]

2. An awesome endeavor!

The creatures of this plant are evolution's very best, humans not so much. Sigh.

K&R :)

[ladjf]

3. Turtles have been here for more than 200,000,000 years.

Homo Sapient , about 300,000 to 500,000 years. We are likely to break the "short-gevity" record when we succeed in annihilating ourselves.

[Bobbieo]

4. They are magnificent creatures!!! My pet babies are a pair of red - earred slider turtles

native to the southeast US - not AZ. Felix and Oscarina - she was Oscar until she laid eggs and had six hatchlings!

[Sal Minella]

5. Love the red-eared sliders -- native to the glacier pothole lakes here

(NW Iowa). I love walking out to the turtle pond in the Spring and seeing them sunning themselves along a log in the water, like plates laid up a waitress's arm. (My congratulations to Oscarina)

[AtomicKitten]

6. Ah, too cute.

[Bobbieo]

7. Oscarina's offspring were 1 inch in diameter when they hatched outside off the back patio

They were just precious!!! I am raising them all outside in plastic ponds. Oscarina and Felix swim with me in the big cement pond during the warm months.