Kategorie: News
Innovation InvestEGGator to protect sea turtles
Turtle eggs are unfortunately considered a delicacy in many places around the world. Therefore, the eggs are often stolen and sold at high prices. The illegal trade is flourishing and the already highly endangered sea turtle is further endangered. To find out which routes are used for smuggling, scientists have made dummy eggs from the 3D printer and equipped them with GPS transmitters. They then laid the artificial eggs in turtle nests on beaches in Costa Rica.
Sea turtles are among the oldest living reptiles in the world. The sea turtle family consists of seven species, whose individuals live as solitary creatures in the oceans. Only for mating the animals come together, after which the females travel to their birth beach, where they lay up to 200 eggs in a sand pit.
From a good 1,000 turtle eggs, normally only one egg makes it to an adult turtle. It is therefore all the more important that every egg laid by a turtle gets a chance. Unfortunately, turtle eggs are popular as a delicacy. In some regions it is also believed that sea-turtle eggs will increase male potency. All reasons why turtle eggs are often stolen directly on the beach by thieves. Reasons for the high endangerment situation with sea turtles.
In order to trace the route of stolen eggs and to uncover possible supply chains, researcher Kim Williams-Guillen developed plastic eggs from the 3D printer in the course of the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge. These look deceptively real, weigh the same as real turtle eggs, but instead of yolk and egg white they contain a GPS tracker. The dummies are named "InvestEGGator" - a combination of the English words for egg (egg) and investigator.
About a hundred of these special eggs were produced and distributed to four beaches in Costa Rica. For each turtle clutch there was one of the artificial eggs. In fact, a quarter of the clutches were then removed by thieves.
Via GPS transmitters the paths of the stolen eggs could be traced: Two of the eggs were found in a residential area, one in a bar and another one was found cut open in another residential area. But one egg came almost 140 kilometers away. At a longer stopover, the researchers could see that this must have been the transshipment point for the trade with these eggs. They were also able to trace the complete trade route by following the egg.
The team around researcher and first author Helen Pheasey from the University of Kent examined how well the deceptively real looking eggs work. The delivery routes they found confirmed the suspicion that most of the illegal trade - at least in Central America - takes place not too far from the nesting beaches: "We can now focus on raising awareness in local communities and focusing law enforcement on this local problem. We also know where the consumers are, which helps us to develop campaigns to reduce demand".
Overall, she said, it's not really about finding the egg thieves. Most of this is already known, Pheasey emphasizes. Rather, the decisive factor with regard to law enforcement is who is dealing with the eggs. This makes the "InvestEGGator" an important tool, but it must be part of a multi-pronged approach of education, economic opportunity and enforcement.
"Our study has shown that placing a bait in a turtle nest does not harm the embryos and that the baits work," Pheasey summarized. It is possible to trace illegally retrieved eggs from the beach to the end consumer. The team hopes that the technology will also be used for sea turtles in other countries and that another element has been created to protect endangered marine life.