Tropic of Cancer - Newly born turtles

[iamhobo]

Just been watching Tropic of Cancer on BBC2 and the segment where turtles come on shore to lay their eggs on the beach. But how do the baby turtles instinctively know to return to the sea? Why don't the head inshore and live their life on land?

[wildwood]

The turtles that lay their eggs on the beach are sea turtles and have flippers instead if legs. It would make life very difficult for them as they are designed to eat stuff that swims in the sea.

Their instinct tells them to head for the sound and smell of the sea.

[boxtops]

I watched that, it was fabulous watching the tiny things legging it down the beach - their lives do depend on the speed, they are good snacks for hungry birds who spot them! Instinct is an amazing thing, just hatched = where's the sea?!

[Quizmonster]

I taped that programme, though I haven't got around to watching it yet, though I know it ended up in Oman. I wonder, therefore, if the turtle hatchlings were filmed on Masirah Island. If so, I was there about 30 years ago and saw, in the flesh, the eggs being laid and, later, the young turtles emerging. The sky was dark with skua-type birds swooping down on them and large fish awaiting them just offshore. I know nature should perhaps be left to run its course, but I scooped up a shirtful of them and swam out to beyond what I took to be the danger-point before releasing them.
I just like to think that maybe ONE of them was involved in the egg-laying seen on the programme!

[Mr Veritas]

Just as you can smell the sea when you go the beach,so the turtles have hundreds of thousands of years of instinct to draw them to the water.
If anyone could explain instinct they would be extremely wise!

[askyourgran]

Missed the series so far, been watching lark rise... Hopefully we'll get a repeat before long.

Seen the turtles on another programme their natural instinct to head for the sea is amazing.

[237SJ]

Last september I found a baby turtle in the grounds of my hotel in Barbados that had been wandering around the gardens for some time. We had a downpour and it had headed to a puddle outside my room. I picked it up and took it down to the sea and watched it swim away. Sometimes their instincts get confused and they head away from the water. The hotel staff said sometimes their reception area is full of them when there`s been a hatching on the beach and they head inland instead of out to sea

[Quizmonster]

Yes, as 237SJ says, their instinct to head for the sea is far from being unfailing. Often, they make for any source of light and - given that that is almost certainly further inland than their hatching beach - frequently die as a result.