Arabian Seas (2017–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Turtles Legacy - full transcript
The sea turtle is one of the oldest animals on Earth. These ancient mariners pre-date the dinosaurs and have existed for over 100 million years, but now all seven of the surviving species are endangered.
The sea turtle.
One of the oldest animals
on earth.
These ancient mariners
pre-date the dinosaurs.
They've remained
essentially unchanged
for 100 million years.
The seven surviving species
are all now endangered.
Yet here, on the Arabian
Peninsula, thousands gather
at one of the most important
breeding sites in the world.
Females endure hardship...
..and their young face
a heroic fight for life...
as they battle to become
the next generation
of Arabia's sea turtles.
**
**
The windswept beaches
of the Sultanate of Oman
provide the dramatic setting
for one of nature's most
enthralling breeding events.
Every year, four of the
world's seven species
of endangered sea turtles
come ashore here
to dig their nests
and lay their eggs.
Cautious females wait just
offshore until the sun sets.
As soon as darkness falls,
the first female emerges
from the waves.
She can spend several hours
at the waterline,
lifting her head
to check for danger,
before starting her journey
up the beach.
Nesting turtles are
discouraged by light.
To capture this intimate
moment of her life
without disturbing her,
the cameras switch
to infra-red,
a light that's invisible
to the turtle.
This is a Green sea turtle.
She hauls herself
up the beach
by moving her large, powerful
front flippers
simultaneously.
This helps her
to gain traction
and move her heavy body.
Green sea turtles
commonly weigh in
at around 330 pounds.
In the water,
the sea turtle is graceful.
But on land, without the sea
to support her weight,
moving takes a lot of effort.
Like all sea turtles,
she can only breathe
when she's still.
The motion of her flippers
impinges on her lungs
and interrupts her breathing.
She must take in
a deep breath,
then hold it, in order
to make her next move.
She reaches
the high tide line.
It's safer to lay eggs
beyond this zone,
away from the risk
of the encroaching sea.
She selects her spot
and starts to dig her nest.
She rotates her fore-flippers
and uses her powerful muscles
to force them back through
the sand like shovels.
Again, she must hold
her breath to do this.
She needs to lay her eggs
in soft sand.
But this patch
is too unstable.
Females will abandon
nest sites
if they sense conditions
aren't exactly right.
They may give up altogether,
returning to the sea
without laying their eggs.
But she changes direction,
signaling her determination
to try again.
She's no longer alone.
These beaches are home to one
of the largest concentrations
of breeding Green sea turtles
found anywhere in the world.
The beaches lie on the
north-east tip of Oman
at Ras Al Jinz.
Every year, up to 15,000
female Greens
come here to lay their eggs.
They nest here year-round,
but numbers peak
in June and July,
when hundreds come ashore
each night.
Moonless nights,
like tonight,
provide extra privacy,
and so are the busiest.
The female finds a new place
to start her nest again.
She chooses fresh sand
with no evidence
of previous disturbance.
She rotates her body
to help create
a shallow depression
in the sand to lie in.
Once she's comfortable,
she's ready to start
digging a hole,
using her shorter
back flippers.
A steady stream of would-be
nesters continues to arrive.
But this spot is taken.
Some are digging deeper
than others.
Sand gets everywhere.
But sea turtles can flush it
out of their eyes
using a secretion from a salt
gland under their eyelid.
This gland primarily allows
them to excrete excess salt
from the seawater.
Once she completes
the nest hole,
she begins excavating
the most important part -
the egg chamber.
This requires precision.
One by one, she curls
each back flipper up
into a small shovel
to carefully scoop out the
damp, compact sand beneath.
The egg chamber is shaped
like a tear drop
and can be up to a further
three feet deep.
She rests between movements
to catch her breath
once more.
Tiring from her exertion,
she takes longer breaks in
this final digging phase.
With one last scoop of sand,
the chamber is ready.
The female, now in a deep
trance, lies almost still,
as she begins
to lay her eggs.
Once she enters this phase,
very little will disturb her.
She drops two or three
at a time.
Each egg is just over an inch
in diameter
and covered in mucus.
The shells are soft
and flexible,
so they don't break
on impact.
Here on the beaches
of Ras Al Jinz,
females have been recorded
laying between 100
and 150 eggs a night.
Her back flippers now conceal
the rest of her delivery.
Once she finishes, the female
covers the nest with sand.
This prevents her precious
clutch from drying out,
and aims to hide them
from predators.
Arabian foxes
patrol these beaches.
Sea turtle eggs
are a nutritious meal.
Two hours after
arriving on land,
the female starts her journey
back to the sea.
Her role as a parent
ends here.
If her eggs remain hidden
from predators,
they'll hatch in two months.
She will come ashore
up to six times this season,
laying up to 900 eggs
before the summer's out.
After that, it will be
two to five years
before she breeds again.
This multiple nesting
strategy each time
is critical to the sea
turtles' survival.
There will be heavy losses of
eggs and hatchlings to come.
In the early hours
of the morning,
it's easy to see why.
An Arabian red fox
breaks cover.
Foxes are the biggest threat
to sea turtle eggs
on these beaches.
This one scours the shore.
If it smells a nest,
it will dig up the eggs.
Foxes on these beaches
have adapted their diet
to take advantage of the
year-round breeding season.
95 per cent of their diet
is sea turtle eggs
and hatchlings.
This one doesn't smell
the newly-laid eggs,
so is out of luck
this morning.
The rising sunlight
now reveals the extent
of the overnight
comings and goings.
Pathways of sea turtle tracks
litter the beach -
evidence of the multiple
night-time nesters.
From above, it's easy to see
the circular nest,
with its arrival and
departure tracks each side -
a clear indication of a
female's route of the beach
and back again to the sea.
In its more usual habitat,
beneath the waves,
a Green sea turtle moves with
ease as it looks for a meal.
Its weight is supported
in the water.
Its curved fore-flippers act
as both wings and propellers
against the sea current.
The sea turtle uses
almost vertical strokes
as it appears to fly
through the water.
Its shorter, rear flippers
act mainly as rudders,
allowing the turtle
to make sharp turns.
Green sea turtles are
exceptionally streamlined
and are highly efficient
swimmers.
Like all sea turtles,
Greens are long-lived.
They have the slowest
maturity rate
of any sea turtle,
sometimes taking
up to 40 years
to become sexually mature.
This juvenile is at least
five years old,
as it's feeding here
in coastal waters.
It will have spent its early
years in the open ocean.
Young sea turtles
are mostly carnivorous,
eating marine invertebrates.
As Green sea turtles grow up,
their diet changes
and they move into these
shallow coastal waters
to feed,
where they become vegetarian,
feeding on seagrass,
kelp and algae,
making adult Greens the only
herbivorous sea turtles
in the world.
This juvenile tugs at carpets
of algae on the hard coral.
Its serrated jaw enables it
to clip and chew plants.
Oman's coast provides plenty
of feeding opportunities.
Seagrass meadows
lie off the central coast.
Algae-rich coral reefs
lie to the north and south.
A sea turtle's shell
is made of keratin,
the same substance as human
hair and fingernails.
It's also known
as a carapace.
And each species
has a distinctive pattern.
In Greens, five scutes, or
plates, run down the center,
with four more
on either side.
The scutes fuse together
over the bony shell,
which provides
a protective shield.
This effective defense
means turtles more than
two years old
have few predators
in the ocean.
Their greatest threat
is from human activity.
Hunting and entrapment
in fishing gear
are perils in the sea.
Dangers on land are from
people harvesting eggs
and destruction
of nesting beaches.
Greens aren't the only
sea turtles
feasting in these waters.
Nearby, a critically
endangered Hawksbill
scours the same reef.
Fully grown, this Hawksbill
is smaller than a Green.
It's most easily identified
by its raptor-like beak,
that gives it its name.
Unlike the Greens,
Hawksbills remain omnivorous
throughout their lives.
A favorite food is sponges.
But they will look for other
marine animals to eat.
This one settles on a tasty
patch of Octocoral,
so called for its eight
hollow tentacles.
It uses its beak
to bite off chunks of coral,
which it crushes
in its powerful jaws.
Hawksbills and Greens are
just two of the four species
of endangered sea turtles
that breed here in Oman,
making the country's beaches
one of the most important
nesting sites in the world.
The juvenile Green sea turtle
now has company.
Despite being
mostly solitary,
aggregations of juveniles
are not uncommon
in prime feeding grounds.
Like all reptiles,
the sea turtle breathes air
through a pair of lungs,
so it must head to the
surface to breathe.
How often they come up
depends on how active
they need to be.
Sea turtles can spend
as little as three per cent
of their time
at the sea surface.
These short bursts of breath
give the Green sea turtle
enough oxygen
to hold it under the water
for up to five hours.
This incredible
breath-holding ability
is largely due to an
extremely slow metabolism.
This enables the sea turtle
to release oxygen very slowly
from large stored reserves
in its blood and muscles.
Their lungs are
specially adapted
to cope with high pressure
under water,
enabling them to dive at
depths of up to 360 feet.
A resting Green sea turtle
can even conserve oxygen
by slowing its heart rate
to just one beat
every nine minutes.
But these active youngsters
show no sign of slowing down.
Along the Ras Al Jinz
beaches,
strong summer winds
cause turbulence
in the Arabian Sea.
Concealed amongst the waves,
a sea turtle appears
at the surface.
This is not one turtle...
..but two.
A male has hold of a female.
Waves batter the couple
as they mate just offshore.
Closer to the beach,
a second pair struggles
to stay together
against the force
of the breaking waves.
The male hooks onto
the female's shell
using a long claw on each
of his fore-flippers.
As he desperately tries
to cling on,
the claws may inflict damage
to the soft flesh
around the female's neck.
The pair eventually
separates,
either by choice
or by the force of the waves.
The female will mate again
with multiple males
to increase genetic diversity
and for sperm storage.
The females now wait offshore
until darkness falls
and the nocturnal nesting
begins once more.
Further north,
on a handful of smaller
and fox-free beaches,
there's a small stirring
in the sand.
Green sea turtle eggs, laid
60 days ago, are hatching.
Tiny baby sea turtles begin
their short but epic journey
down the beach.
The hatchlings are just
two inches long.
Both Green sea turtles
and Hawksbills
breed on these
northern beaches.
Temperature determines
the hatchling's sex.
Those incubated
in warmer conditions,
often nearer the surface,
tend to be female.
Those developed
in cooler temperatures,
in, say, deeper sand,
tend to be male.
This is known as temperature
dependent sex determination
and is common to sea turtles,
crocodiles and some lizards.
Unlike their mothers,
baby sea turtles alternate
left and right flippers,
moving diagonally-opposite
limbs together
to propel themselves
over the sand.
There may be many obstacles
to overcome...
..small pebbles
on the sand...
..giant boulders.
As they reach the smooth,
wet sand,
they pick up their pace.
The vulnerable hatchlings
instinctively
head to the water,
guided by the light
reflecting on the waves
and the slope of the beach.
Sea turtles usually emerge
at night
to reduce their exposure
to potential danger.
With no land predators
on these beaches,
the youngsters risk it
in the late afternoon light.
This is an extremely
rare sight.
The first plucky adventurers
reach the water.
This baby sea turtle
must now swim for its life.
Frantic flipper movements,
known as a swimming frenzy,
move it rapidly away
from the dangers of
shallow water predators.
Where these hatchlings
go next is still a mystery.
Somewhere out
in the open ocean.
Females that survive
to adulthood
will eventually return
to the beaches
they were born on to nest.
Back on the southern
nesting beaches,
hatchlings have a far more
perilous journey ahead.
Armies of Ghost crabs
patrol this shore.
They're the fastest
crustacean on land,
moving at up to seven feet
a second.
Foxes aside, they pose
the greatest danger
to baby sea turtles.
They get their name Ghost
from their pale color
and their ability
to vanish in an instant.
The crabs can tunnel
through the sand,
breaking into turtle nests
to raid the eggs,
but are at their most
menacing
when the hatchlings emerge.
Crabs will snatch up
a hatchling
with their large claws.
Some will then drag
their hapless victims
into their burrows.
Gulls will be ready for any
latecomers in the morning.
The scene is set for a battle
between predator and prey.
As darkness falls,
the females continue to come
ashore to lay more eggs.
Even in low season,
up to 30 can make this
important journey each night.
As they lumber up the beach
to dig new nests,
life is emerging from eggs
laid two months earlier.
Hatchlings often stay
buried under the sand
for several days
before clawing their way
to the surface.
This tiny pioneer
scrambles rapidly
towards the moonlight
reflected on the waves.
But a minefield of danger
awaits him.
The two-inch crabs
will easily grab a hatchling
their own size.
The plucky baby sea turtle
evades the first.
But it's still several feet
from the water.
Finally, success.
Others begin their own
treacherous journeys
to the sea.
Some get a lucky break.
Others are not as fortunate.
Dodging death-traps can be
a matter of luck
more than judgement.
The crabs appear
to be winning.
They devour their hapless
victims alive.
The odds appear overwhelming.
But hatchling survival
is a numbers game.
With up to 150 tiny
sea turtles per nest,
more scramble to the sea
than can be scooped up
by hungry crabs.
A final hatchling embarks
on its mad dash to the water.
Its brief taste of life
seems over in an instant.
But this little guy
is a fighter.
For those that make it
this far,
their perilous journey
is only just beginning.
As dawn breaks,
the hatchlings
have all but vanished.
A gull picks off an unlucky
young straggler.
The last of the night's
nesting females
are also departing.
Those that have laid
all their eggs
will start to migrate back
to their feeding grounds.
Many will head to other areas
around the Arabian Peninsula.
Some will travel as far
as Africa, or the Maldives.
One latecomer
is still hard at it.
She's laid her eggs but she
still has to hide them.
With so many dangers
facing her offspring,
this female takes extra time
to cover her tracks
in daylight.
Females can spend
up to two hours
disguising the nest
from land predators.
A flesh wound
beneath her shell
is likely an injury sustained
whilst mating offshore.
But it will heal soon enough.
This may be her last nest
of the season.
A final clutch of eggs
among a possible 900
she could have laid
this year.
Not all will hatch.
And of those that do,
on these beaches,
less than one in 1,000
will make it to adulthood.
This female was one
of the lucky ones
who survived her inaugural
mad dash for the ocean,
and many years at sea since.
She was born on this beach.
Returning here to nest makes
her at least 20 years old.
For years, scientists
were mystified
about how sea turtles are
able to find their way back
to their natal beaches.
Some travel over 1,500 miles.
Recent research reveals
that sea turtle hatchlings
may use tiny magnetic
particles in their brain
to imprint on the magnetic
field
around the beach
they're born on.
They may use
this unique signature
to find their way back
as adults.
If a nest site worked
for her mother,
it will probably work
for her.
90 per cent of Oman's
female Green sea turtles
lay their eggs on the beaches
around Ras Al Jinz.
This mother's efforts,
and those of all
the nesting females,
mean they have done
as much as they can
to secure the legacy
of Arabia's
Green sea turtles.
**
**
**
One of the oldest animals
on earth.
These ancient mariners
pre-date the dinosaurs.
They've remained
essentially unchanged
for 100 million years.
The seven surviving species
are all now endangered.
Yet here, on the Arabian
Peninsula, thousands gather
at one of the most important
breeding sites in the world.
Females endure hardship...
..and their young face
a heroic fight for life...
as they battle to become
the next generation
of Arabia's sea turtles.
**
**
The windswept beaches
of the Sultanate of Oman
provide the dramatic setting
for one of nature's most
enthralling breeding events.
Every year, four of the
world's seven species
of endangered sea turtles
come ashore here
to dig their nests
and lay their eggs.
Cautious females wait just
offshore until the sun sets.
As soon as darkness falls,
the first female emerges
from the waves.
She can spend several hours
at the waterline,
lifting her head
to check for danger,
before starting her journey
up the beach.
Nesting turtles are
discouraged by light.
To capture this intimate
moment of her life
without disturbing her,
the cameras switch
to infra-red,
a light that's invisible
to the turtle.
This is a Green sea turtle.
She hauls herself
up the beach
by moving her large, powerful
front flippers
simultaneously.
This helps her
to gain traction
and move her heavy body.
Green sea turtles
commonly weigh in
at around 330 pounds.
In the water,
the sea turtle is graceful.
But on land, without the sea
to support her weight,
moving takes a lot of effort.
Like all sea turtles,
she can only breathe
when she's still.
The motion of her flippers
impinges on her lungs
and interrupts her breathing.
She must take in
a deep breath,
then hold it, in order
to make her next move.
She reaches
the high tide line.
It's safer to lay eggs
beyond this zone,
away from the risk
of the encroaching sea.
She selects her spot
and starts to dig her nest.
She rotates her fore-flippers
and uses her powerful muscles
to force them back through
the sand like shovels.
Again, she must hold
her breath to do this.
She needs to lay her eggs
in soft sand.
But this patch
is too unstable.
Females will abandon
nest sites
if they sense conditions
aren't exactly right.
They may give up altogether,
returning to the sea
without laying their eggs.
But she changes direction,
signaling her determination
to try again.
She's no longer alone.
These beaches are home to one
of the largest concentrations
of breeding Green sea turtles
found anywhere in the world.
The beaches lie on the
north-east tip of Oman
at Ras Al Jinz.
Every year, up to 15,000
female Greens
come here to lay their eggs.
They nest here year-round,
but numbers peak
in June and July,
when hundreds come ashore
each night.
Moonless nights,
like tonight,
provide extra privacy,
and so are the busiest.
The female finds a new place
to start her nest again.
She chooses fresh sand
with no evidence
of previous disturbance.
She rotates her body
to help create
a shallow depression
in the sand to lie in.
Once she's comfortable,
she's ready to start
digging a hole,
using her shorter
back flippers.
A steady stream of would-be
nesters continues to arrive.
But this spot is taken.
Some are digging deeper
than others.
Sand gets everywhere.
But sea turtles can flush it
out of their eyes
using a secretion from a salt
gland under their eyelid.
This gland primarily allows
them to excrete excess salt
from the seawater.
Once she completes
the nest hole,
she begins excavating
the most important part -
the egg chamber.
This requires precision.
One by one, she curls
each back flipper up
into a small shovel
to carefully scoop out the
damp, compact sand beneath.
The egg chamber is shaped
like a tear drop
and can be up to a further
three feet deep.
She rests between movements
to catch her breath
once more.
Tiring from her exertion,
she takes longer breaks in
this final digging phase.
With one last scoop of sand,
the chamber is ready.
The female, now in a deep
trance, lies almost still,
as she begins
to lay her eggs.
Once she enters this phase,
very little will disturb her.
She drops two or three
at a time.
Each egg is just over an inch
in diameter
and covered in mucus.
The shells are soft
and flexible,
so they don't break
on impact.
Here on the beaches
of Ras Al Jinz,
females have been recorded
laying between 100
and 150 eggs a night.
Her back flippers now conceal
the rest of her delivery.
Once she finishes, the female
covers the nest with sand.
This prevents her precious
clutch from drying out,
and aims to hide them
from predators.
Arabian foxes
patrol these beaches.
Sea turtle eggs
are a nutritious meal.
Two hours after
arriving on land,
the female starts her journey
back to the sea.
Her role as a parent
ends here.
If her eggs remain hidden
from predators,
they'll hatch in two months.
She will come ashore
up to six times this season,
laying up to 900 eggs
before the summer's out.
After that, it will be
two to five years
before she breeds again.
This multiple nesting
strategy each time
is critical to the sea
turtles' survival.
There will be heavy losses of
eggs and hatchlings to come.
In the early hours
of the morning,
it's easy to see why.
An Arabian red fox
breaks cover.
Foxes are the biggest threat
to sea turtle eggs
on these beaches.
This one scours the shore.
If it smells a nest,
it will dig up the eggs.
Foxes on these beaches
have adapted their diet
to take advantage of the
year-round breeding season.
95 per cent of their diet
is sea turtle eggs
and hatchlings.
This one doesn't smell
the newly-laid eggs,
so is out of luck
this morning.
The rising sunlight
now reveals the extent
of the overnight
comings and goings.
Pathways of sea turtle tracks
litter the beach -
evidence of the multiple
night-time nesters.
From above, it's easy to see
the circular nest,
with its arrival and
departure tracks each side -
a clear indication of a
female's route of the beach
and back again to the sea.
In its more usual habitat,
beneath the waves,
a Green sea turtle moves with
ease as it looks for a meal.
Its weight is supported
in the water.
Its curved fore-flippers act
as both wings and propellers
against the sea current.
The sea turtle uses
almost vertical strokes
as it appears to fly
through the water.
Its shorter, rear flippers
act mainly as rudders,
allowing the turtle
to make sharp turns.
Green sea turtles are
exceptionally streamlined
and are highly efficient
swimmers.
Like all sea turtles,
Greens are long-lived.
They have the slowest
maturity rate
of any sea turtle,
sometimes taking
up to 40 years
to become sexually mature.
This juvenile is at least
five years old,
as it's feeding here
in coastal waters.
It will have spent its early
years in the open ocean.
Young sea turtles
are mostly carnivorous,
eating marine invertebrates.
As Green sea turtles grow up,
their diet changes
and they move into these
shallow coastal waters
to feed,
where they become vegetarian,
feeding on seagrass,
kelp and algae,
making adult Greens the only
herbivorous sea turtles
in the world.
This juvenile tugs at carpets
of algae on the hard coral.
Its serrated jaw enables it
to clip and chew plants.
Oman's coast provides plenty
of feeding opportunities.
Seagrass meadows
lie off the central coast.
Algae-rich coral reefs
lie to the north and south.
A sea turtle's shell
is made of keratin,
the same substance as human
hair and fingernails.
It's also known
as a carapace.
And each species
has a distinctive pattern.
In Greens, five scutes, or
plates, run down the center,
with four more
on either side.
The scutes fuse together
over the bony shell,
which provides
a protective shield.
This effective defense
means turtles more than
two years old
have few predators
in the ocean.
Their greatest threat
is from human activity.
Hunting and entrapment
in fishing gear
are perils in the sea.
Dangers on land are from
people harvesting eggs
and destruction
of nesting beaches.
Greens aren't the only
sea turtles
feasting in these waters.
Nearby, a critically
endangered Hawksbill
scours the same reef.
Fully grown, this Hawksbill
is smaller than a Green.
It's most easily identified
by its raptor-like beak,
that gives it its name.
Unlike the Greens,
Hawksbills remain omnivorous
throughout their lives.
A favorite food is sponges.
But they will look for other
marine animals to eat.
This one settles on a tasty
patch of Octocoral,
so called for its eight
hollow tentacles.
It uses its beak
to bite off chunks of coral,
which it crushes
in its powerful jaws.
Hawksbills and Greens are
just two of the four species
of endangered sea turtles
that breed here in Oman,
making the country's beaches
one of the most important
nesting sites in the world.
The juvenile Green sea turtle
now has company.
Despite being
mostly solitary,
aggregations of juveniles
are not uncommon
in prime feeding grounds.
Like all reptiles,
the sea turtle breathes air
through a pair of lungs,
so it must head to the
surface to breathe.
How often they come up
depends on how active
they need to be.
Sea turtles can spend
as little as three per cent
of their time
at the sea surface.
These short bursts of breath
give the Green sea turtle
enough oxygen
to hold it under the water
for up to five hours.
This incredible
breath-holding ability
is largely due to an
extremely slow metabolism.
This enables the sea turtle
to release oxygen very slowly
from large stored reserves
in its blood and muscles.
Their lungs are
specially adapted
to cope with high pressure
under water,
enabling them to dive at
depths of up to 360 feet.
A resting Green sea turtle
can even conserve oxygen
by slowing its heart rate
to just one beat
every nine minutes.
But these active youngsters
show no sign of slowing down.
Along the Ras Al Jinz
beaches,
strong summer winds
cause turbulence
in the Arabian Sea.
Concealed amongst the waves,
a sea turtle appears
at the surface.
This is not one turtle...
..but two.
A male has hold of a female.
Waves batter the couple
as they mate just offshore.
Closer to the beach,
a second pair struggles
to stay together
against the force
of the breaking waves.
The male hooks onto
the female's shell
using a long claw on each
of his fore-flippers.
As he desperately tries
to cling on,
the claws may inflict damage
to the soft flesh
around the female's neck.
The pair eventually
separates,
either by choice
or by the force of the waves.
The female will mate again
with multiple males
to increase genetic diversity
and for sperm storage.
The females now wait offshore
until darkness falls
and the nocturnal nesting
begins once more.
Further north,
on a handful of smaller
and fox-free beaches,
there's a small stirring
in the sand.
Green sea turtle eggs, laid
60 days ago, are hatching.
Tiny baby sea turtles begin
their short but epic journey
down the beach.
The hatchlings are just
two inches long.
Both Green sea turtles
and Hawksbills
breed on these
northern beaches.
Temperature determines
the hatchling's sex.
Those incubated
in warmer conditions,
often nearer the surface,
tend to be female.
Those developed
in cooler temperatures,
in, say, deeper sand,
tend to be male.
This is known as temperature
dependent sex determination
and is common to sea turtles,
crocodiles and some lizards.
Unlike their mothers,
baby sea turtles alternate
left and right flippers,
moving diagonally-opposite
limbs together
to propel themselves
over the sand.
There may be many obstacles
to overcome...
..small pebbles
on the sand...
..giant boulders.
As they reach the smooth,
wet sand,
they pick up their pace.
The vulnerable hatchlings
instinctively
head to the water,
guided by the light
reflecting on the waves
and the slope of the beach.
Sea turtles usually emerge
at night
to reduce their exposure
to potential danger.
With no land predators
on these beaches,
the youngsters risk it
in the late afternoon light.
This is an extremely
rare sight.
The first plucky adventurers
reach the water.
This baby sea turtle
must now swim for its life.
Frantic flipper movements,
known as a swimming frenzy,
move it rapidly away
from the dangers of
shallow water predators.
Where these hatchlings
go next is still a mystery.
Somewhere out
in the open ocean.
Females that survive
to adulthood
will eventually return
to the beaches
they were born on to nest.
Back on the southern
nesting beaches,
hatchlings have a far more
perilous journey ahead.
Armies of Ghost crabs
patrol this shore.
They're the fastest
crustacean on land,
moving at up to seven feet
a second.
Foxes aside, they pose
the greatest danger
to baby sea turtles.
They get their name Ghost
from their pale color
and their ability
to vanish in an instant.
The crabs can tunnel
through the sand,
breaking into turtle nests
to raid the eggs,
but are at their most
menacing
when the hatchlings emerge.
Crabs will snatch up
a hatchling
with their large claws.
Some will then drag
their hapless victims
into their burrows.
Gulls will be ready for any
latecomers in the morning.
The scene is set for a battle
between predator and prey.
As darkness falls,
the females continue to come
ashore to lay more eggs.
Even in low season,
up to 30 can make this
important journey each night.
As they lumber up the beach
to dig new nests,
life is emerging from eggs
laid two months earlier.
Hatchlings often stay
buried under the sand
for several days
before clawing their way
to the surface.
This tiny pioneer
scrambles rapidly
towards the moonlight
reflected on the waves.
But a minefield of danger
awaits him.
The two-inch crabs
will easily grab a hatchling
their own size.
The plucky baby sea turtle
evades the first.
But it's still several feet
from the water.
Finally, success.
Others begin their own
treacherous journeys
to the sea.
Some get a lucky break.
Others are not as fortunate.
Dodging death-traps can be
a matter of luck
more than judgement.
The crabs appear
to be winning.
They devour their hapless
victims alive.
The odds appear overwhelming.
But hatchling survival
is a numbers game.
With up to 150 tiny
sea turtles per nest,
more scramble to the sea
than can be scooped up
by hungry crabs.
A final hatchling embarks
on its mad dash to the water.
Its brief taste of life
seems over in an instant.
But this little guy
is a fighter.
For those that make it
this far,
their perilous journey
is only just beginning.
As dawn breaks,
the hatchlings
have all but vanished.
A gull picks off an unlucky
young straggler.
The last of the night's
nesting females
are also departing.
Those that have laid
all their eggs
will start to migrate back
to their feeding grounds.
Many will head to other areas
around the Arabian Peninsula.
Some will travel as far
as Africa, or the Maldives.
One latecomer
is still hard at it.
She's laid her eggs but she
still has to hide them.
With so many dangers
facing her offspring,
this female takes extra time
to cover her tracks
in daylight.
Females can spend
up to two hours
disguising the nest
from land predators.
A flesh wound
beneath her shell
is likely an injury sustained
whilst mating offshore.
But it will heal soon enough.
This may be her last nest
of the season.
A final clutch of eggs
among a possible 900
she could have laid
this year.
Not all will hatch.
And of those that do,
on these beaches,
less than one in 1,000
will make it to adulthood.
This female was one
of the lucky ones
who survived her inaugural
mad dash for the ocean,
and many years at sea since.
She was born on this beach.
Returning here to nest makes
her at least 20 years old.
For years, scientists
were mystified
about how sea turtles are
able to find their way back
to their natal beaches.
Some travel over 1,500 miles.
Recent research reveals
that sea turtle hatchlings
may use tiny magnetic
particles in their brain
to imprint on the magnetic
field
around the beach
they're born on.
They may use
this unique signature
to find their way back
as adults.
If a nest site worked
for her mother,
it will probably work
for her.
90 per cent of Oman's
female Green sea turtles
lay their eggs on the beaches
around Ras Al Jinz.
This mother's efforts,
and those of all
the nesting females,
mean they have done
as much as they can
to secure the legacy
of Arabia's
Green sea turtles.
**
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