Cycle of Life: A photo essay
Posted by Dean Bradshaw | Filed under Wildlife Photography
A Green Turtle lays her eggs, against the glow of two oil rigs on the horizon.
Earlier this year, I spent two weeks traversing the Pilbara region of Western Australia, as a personal project to document the region and also to relax at the same time. Another of the primary reasons for the trip was to spend some time around Exmouth and nearby Cape Range National Park, to document the hatching of turtles along the coastline, and if I was lucky, the laying of eggs by the enormous adult turtles. We spent about three nights camping in the national park, each evening going out looking for wildlife on the roads and then pulling into some of the many beaches along the Cape searching for nesting Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas).
A turtle clambers ashore to lay her eggs at sunset
Find out more and see what eats baby turtles after the jump!
As it turned out, It was far easier than I had expected to watch adult turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. The most eager would trundle ashore as the sun set, clambering agonizingly up the beaches to find themselves a spot to begin digging their nest and then to eventually lay their eggs.
During most stages of the laying process, from coming ashore all the way up to actually laying the eggs, the turtles are easily spooked and so we would hide, close to the ground until we were certain that females had begun to lay. Females would dig enormous pits, oftentimes approaching 2m in diameter and these could take up to half an hr or so to dig. Then, females would enter a trance-like state, where they could be safely approached without us disturbing them. Light sources are equally as disturbing to the nesting turtles as people walking about in the night, so we would lie still – in the dark, waiting for the tell-tale signs of sand being flicked from the nest to stop – signalling the female was about to begin laying.
But, nature also has a darker side. At the same time as we would search for nesting adults, we would occasionally come across a relatively harrowing, though fascinating scene. Exmouth, like many of the warmer parts of the world, has beaches which by day are dotted with hundreds of small 50 cent piece sized holes. By night, Ghost Crabs emerge from these holes – their burrows – to pick their way across the shoreline, scavenging on flotsam. During this time of the year however, there is another bounty to be had by the crustaceans….
A large Ghost Crab feeds on a newly hatched Green Turtle
Many of us are familiar with the dramatic documentary scenes showing baby turtles clambering from their nests out into the sun where dozens of them are picked off by everything from seagulls to enormous monitor lizards. Though these versions are emotionally charged by dramatic camera work and gripping soundtracks, the reality is not far from the truth. It was not uncommon for us to come across scenes like the one pictured above. By day, the scene was even worse, though not as downright gruesome – it was at this time that turtles had to worry about death from above. Seagulls picked off many more turtles than the crabs were able to overpower. Indeed, one of the easiest ways to find hatchling turtles was by searching for the swarms of seabirds which would bombard the hatchlings as they scrambled for the surf!
It was a sight to behold, and probably the most amazing natural history event I’ve ever witnessed. I hope you enjoy the pictures.
To find out more about Green Turtles and their nesting habits, read about them on wikipedia.
Tags: field, photo essay, photojournalism, Wildlife, Wildlife Photography
One Response to “Cycle of Life: A photo essay”
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Tony Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 8:04 amCool entry Dean. I usually spend a couple of weeks up at Exmouth every year and we watched a turtle laying last year which was a trip highlight for me (normally we’re too late in the season to see it). The last few years I’ve been going up there I’ve done some scuba diving and it always amazes me how graceful (and fast) the turtles are in the water compared to what they’re like on land.
cheers Tony
