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The hawksbill rookery at Antigua, W.I.: nest success, hatchling behavior, and hatchling survival during offshore migration

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Date Issued:
2013
Summary:
The younger life history stages of marine turtles (eggs, hatchlings) often fail to survive. To compensate, sea turtles nest several times/season and produce large clutches of eggs. The hawksbill produces the largest clutches (150 eggs) and the smallest hatchlings of any marine turtle. My study, done at Jumby Bay in Antigua, West Indies, was designed to determine whether they did so to compensate for loss in the nest, hatchling loss in the water, or both factors. I found that most of the eggs (79 %) survived to become hatchlings that left the nest and entered the sea. However, 88 % of the hatchlings swimming offshore were taken by predators within minutes after they began their migration. These results suggest that at Jumby Bay, large clutch size is favored in hawksbills because of predation pressures on the hatchlings.
Title: The hawksbill rookery at Antigua, W.I.: nest success, hatchling behavior, and hatchling survival during offshore migration.
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Name(s): Reising, Megan, author
Salmon, Michael, Thesis advisor
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Degree grantor
Department of Biological Sciences
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: single unit
Date Created: Fall 2013
Date Issued: 2013
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Physical Form: Online Resource
Extent: 56 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: The younger life history stages of marine turtles (eggs, hatchlings) often fail to survive. To compensate, sea turtles nest several times/season and produce large clutches of eggs. The hawksbill produces the largest clutches (150 eggs) and the smallest hatchlings of any marine turtle. My study, done at Jumby Bay in Antigua, West Indies, was designed to determine whether they did so to compensate for loss in the nest, hatchling loss in the water, or both factors. I found that most of the eggs (79 %) survived to become hatchlings that left the nest and entered the sea. However, 88 % of the hatchlings swimming offshore were taken by predators within minutes after they began their migration. These results suggest that at Jumby Bay, large clutch size is favored in hawksbills because of predation pressures on the hatchlings.
Identifier: FA0004049 (IID)
Note(s): Includes bibliography.
Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.
Subject(s): Animal migration -- Antigua -- Jumbo Bay
Animal orientation -- Antigua -- Jumbo Bay
Hawksbill turtle -- Research -- Antigua -- Jumbo Bay
Predation (Biology)
Sea turtles -- Research -- Antigua -- Jumbo Bay
Wildlife conservation -- Antigua -- Jumbo Bay
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library
Sublocation: Boca Raton, Fla.
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA0004049
Restrictions on Access: All rights reserved by the source institution
Restrictions on Access: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU