Temperatures

Sunday, July 22^nd

We finally installed the temperature gauges in the hatchery! The gauges are to make sure that the eggs aren’t getting too hot or too cold. They also help us to make sure that the 50:50 male to female ratio is being achieved. We were waiting for a while because we needed a large enough nest to bury one of the gauges in. 

This is because the gauges have 3 depths: 45cm (bottom of the eggs), 32.5cm (middle of the eggs), and 25 cm (top of the eggs). We put one gauge on the beach as a control, one in the middle of the big hatchery as a control, one in a nest in the big hatchery, and one in the front of the small hatchery next to a nest. The temperatures get measured at 6:00am, noon, and 6:00pm. The noon measurement is probably the most important because that is the hottest part of the day. I’m really glad we finally have these gauges in place. It makes me feel better to know how hot these eggs are getting, so I can prescribe some watering if necessary.

 Measuring the temperature in the big hatchery for the first time!

The rest of the day was spent entering data. Luckily, I have tons of experience haha! It was actually kind of nice to get out of the sun for a day.

The weirdest occurrence of the day was the baby rats found in Glenda’s hut. They were cute in kind of a gross way. There were about five in total. Glenda spent the rest of the day cleaning her hut out haha.

 Baby rat...probably only a couple days to a week old

During our patrols there was a ferocious storm! Within 5 minutes we were drenched. Turtles come out more during weather events like storms or big winds, so we kept walking. I really wanted to be the first person to FIND a turtle nest as opposed to buying one or getting a donation. Unfortunately for me but good for the hatchery…two Germans found a turtle before the parlameros. We got our first found nest, but not by me. Oh well!!!