'Homing turtles' go back to familiar grounds

Lead author, Dr Takahiro Shimada said the JCU team tracked 59 turtles released outside of the areas where they had been found along the Queensland coast.

“We lost communication with the tracking devices on two of them, but all except one of the rest returned home,” he said.

While most of the turtles travelled to their old homes after a short time in captivity, one of the returning turtles had been held for more than 500 days while it recovered from injury. Another was released more than 117 km from where it was originally found and successfully made the journey back.

“It was surprising, we weren’t quite sure if they would make it back over that distance or after that amount of time,” said Dr Shimada.

He said researchers were also surprised with the precision of the turtles’ navigation – with most eventually ending up within a few hundred metres of their home.

Researchers think the animals navigate using a combination of geomagnetic cues and other processes not yet fully understood.

The researchers returned another 54 turtles directly to their original home areas and found they didn’t leave.

Dr Shimada said it’s difficult to definitively prove why the turtles have such an attachment to a certain place. “Common sense suggests it’s because they are familiar with the sources of food and shelter and where predators may be,” he said.

The scientists say the finding has important implications for turtle conservation, with long-term resettlement of turtles away from dangerous or damaged environments not a realistic option.

Link: to pics and paper and diagrams: bit.ly/1UadJ5h

Note: Pictures are of Dr Takahiro Shimada during capture and release operations with turtles.

They are for single use only with this media release and not available to be archived or reused.

(Tracking units featured in the pictures are either recovered or fall off in time).