Sea turtles

Well, a few posts ago, we told you about a gigantic sea turtle coming ashore one night and how exciting that was. Since then, we have learned more about why they come ashore at night. Last evening, one showed up and seems she was there to lay her eggs. She came up as far as the loose sand near the seawall and to lay her eggs. Nesting can take between one and three hours. After a female turtle drags herself up the beach, she hollows out a pit with her back legs and deposits from fifty to two hundred eggs the size of golf balls. When the last egg is laid, the turtle covers the eggs with sand, tamps down the sand with her plastron, and flings more sand about with her flippers to erase any signs of the nest. Here in Mazatlan, after she returns to the ocean, the security beach police dig them up and take them to the aquarium for safe keeping until they hatch in about one month, otherwise, many would not survive. We took these pictures but were scolded by the police, as the flash will scare the turtle back to the ocean before she has a chance to lay her eggs. We felt bad about taking the picutres but we just didn't know. :( Just hope she had laid her eggs before she started back. We think you can get an idea of how large she was by the pictures though. Pretty interesting, huh!