We are delighted to announce the birth of the first sea turtles of the season earlier today at The Royal Sands. All 117 are doing fine and will be released after dark tonight when there are fewer bird predators such as sea gulls and frigate birds around. If you have ever gently held a baby turtle or watched as they scuttle across the sand towards the waves, you’ll have been amazed at the strength of these tiny creatures and the powerful urge that drives them.
We visited these little dudes this afternoon and found them taking a well-earned nap, a real Mexican siesta! As you can see from the photos, they do not look very energetic. After all, it is hard work chipping away at the egg shell and it takes them over an hour, sometimes even longer to struggle free. However, they soon begin to revive as the sun goes down and the sea breeze picks up.
Once they enter the sea, male turtles spend the rest of their lives in the water but the females return to the beaches where they were born to dig their nests. We hope and pray that in 12 to 15 years time many of these green turtles will lay their own eggs on the Mexican Caribbean coast.
So we welcome our newborns with a hearty bienvenidas tortuguitas and we wish them Godspeed as they begin their lives at sea.
