Servus München: animals

Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

Monday, August 20, 2012

North Cyprus Sea Turtles

North Cyprus is home to the endangered Green + Loggerhead sea turtles. In all of our travels we had yet to see a sea turtle and our visit was carefully planned to coincide with their hatching and release. Each summer students come to North Cyprus to help the preservation and studies of these sweet little creatures.

Up and down the coast there are many little screened white cages to protect them from predators. While the mother comes ashore in search of the perfect place to lay her clutch of eggs volunteers carefully monitor things. As she goes into a trance each nest is outfitted with high tech thermometers so data can be collected within each nest during the gestation. The higher temperatures (and global warming) creates more females than males, which is unsettling. Even just a couple of degrees difference will make the entire nest female (warmer temps coincide with higher female populations).

Also problematic is the detritus and litter along the beach (notice the cigarette butt right near the cage in the photo above). I could not believe the waste on the beach, which was both left behind and washed ashore. Many sea turtles return to lay their clutches of eggs on the very beach they were born. There was so much plastic, which left me bewildered. I tried to do my part to pick up the multicolored plastic around our beach towel, but it was virtually impossible. Alagadi is one of the main beaches of the turtle nesting, which is just up the coast from a power plant, so the turtles also are dealing with the light pollution in an otherwise very dark area.

In most any other country I would think these beaches would be completely closed to the public, however people sit amidst the cages throughout the day. Those working with the turtles' preservation patrol the beach through the day and night. As often is the case, nature and the animals are forced to persevere and work around people.

If a nest begins hatching at night, the volunteers monitor the turtles making their way to the sea and dig a trench to make their journey a bit easier.

The next day they go in to excavate the nest, help the stragglers who are still fighting their way out, and counting the unfertilized eggs, unhatched eggs, and those that are empty which resemble ping pong balls. Surprisingly even ghost crabs have been known to attack these little guys as they make their way to the sea pulling them into their holes for a meal. In several photos their tiny nails are visible, but generally they are pretty peaceful and defenseless.

Some come out flapping away and ready swim, while others are a bit more lethargic after using up so much energy to get out of the egg chamber.

Since the glaring mid-day sun is a bit too intense and make the turtles more susceptible to predators they are collected and released under the moon light after the beach has closed.

The best way to know if there will be a release that night is to call the "goat shed" promptly at noon. Sometimes the phone lines are very busy, so if you're in the area it helps to stop by in person.

We were able to take part in a release and hold a little turtle before they made their journey to the water. For a release one of the workers will stand in the ocean with a headlamp acting as the moon to guide them, but several still got distracted (like the one above). The only light permitted, except for the one volunteer's headlamp, are red lights, which don't distract the turtles from starting their journey into the water.

As I held my little matchbox sized sea turtle her little feet were flapping in the air ready to swim. I told her to grow big, strong, and come back with her own babies. Then I set her into the sand and watched her scurry into the water. She was the fastest of the bunch. It's a really neat experience to be a part of.

We did not see any loggerhead hatchlings during four excavations, but we did adopt a green sea turtle, so we can track him/her as long as the tracking device doesn't fall off.

If you are also planning a trip to see the sea turtles, you may find the following links useful:
SPOT - Society for Protection of Turtles
How the divide in Cyprus affects the turtles

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

aurora borealis - Iceland

We ventured back to some of our favorite places in and around Reykjavik, but first things first, we saw the northern lights / aurora borealis / polar lichter and they were absolutely mesmerizing!

It was pure luck that there was a huge solar storm headed towards Earth, which gave us an unforgettable evening with the sound of waves crashing, the occasional chirping bird, and those green lights up above.

We were completely alone and it was pure solitude.

It's always nice to go back to a place after previously visiting, because there's a sense of familiarity.

When we went to Iceland last June, the Harpa was newly completed, but we didn't have time to tour it. This visit it was high at the top of my list and certainly didn't disappoint.

I'm a little nervous about how all of those glass panels would handle a decent earthquake, since there is a rather large tectonic plate nearby, but for the peace of mind I'll just say hopefully the professionals figured that out.

(My tip: if you go, visit at dusk, the colored panels start to really glisten and glow - it's magic!)

We admired random things at the grocery...

...ate lots of skyr

saw some pretty milk cartons

Kolaportið flea market's bright pink salmon

Reykjavik street art

serrano + nam... both inexpensive, yet good food options.

I also love that they aren't afraid of spicy food.

We spent a lot of time with nature and appreciated how easy it is to feel completely isolated. Here are some of the places we visited along the way:

selandjafoss... unfortunately the little dog we met last time wasn't nearby.

kirkjufjara... black sand beaches are really something special.

eyjafjallajökull... the volcano that erupted in 2010 and gave air travelers some serious panic.

For the record, Stefan's "horse voice" is absolutely hilarious. We gave them some comical commentary as we visited.

The funny thing about visiting Iceland in the late Winter / early Spring is the weather. We went from gale force winds and torrential rain to moments of heavy ground covering snow and other days it was relatively sunny and warm... kind of like Ohio.