It's officially green turtle season! There has been lots of activity on the beach lately and every night we are seeing signs of greens either nesting or of their half moons (tracks coming onto the beach but with no nest). Some patrols have even seen the turtles mating in the water not far from shore! With all this activity, our jobs have been made a lot harder, not only in trying to reach every turtle to take biometric data, but also in keeping a constant presence on the beach to deter poaching (which reaches its peak during green season). We've already had at least 3 lifted turtles this year, meaning that the turtle came up to nest but was carried away, probably to be butchered for its meat or shell. To combat this, we now have two nightly patrols, instead of the usual one from10pm to 2am. Since the second patrol shift starts at midnight, I've been catching the sunrise while on patrol after a night of watching turtles nest in the moonlight. Sometimes I feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world to have an opportunity like this.
Here's some pictures of various herps (reptiles) from this week!
Since Bryce, a herpetologist from California, has been here for the past week, he's been catching and processing various snakes. I got to help with this Fer-de-lance (Bothrops asper), and I didn't die!
measuring tail length from the vent (who knew snakes have tails?)
Coral Snake (Micrurus alleni) These guys move really fast so it was hard to get a good picture of it (unless it's stuffed into a plastic tube like the one you see here)
Red-Eyed Tree Frog (Agalychenis callidryas)
Juvenile spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus). I'd like to believe I was actually holding a baby T-rex.
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