Plants can damage sea turtle eggs too

Any sea turtle conservationist in charge of a hatchery should watch out for animals that can dig. Dogs, crabs, lizards, rats, snakes etc. animals are natural threat to eggs in any sea turtle nest on the beach and they will gladly play the same role against secondary nests that have been set up in a hatchery. Although it sounds incredible, trees can also damage the eggs by growing roots around or into the eggs.





In a recent excavation of a secondary nest in Juara Turtle Project, some eggs were found damaged in this way. While some of the eggs were completely entangled with the roots growing all around, others were found damaged by the roots breaking the shell and growing into the egg.