This article uses drones as a new way to survey and study
the breeding areas of turtles. Their research aims to discover more about the
mating dynamics and sex ratios of the
logger head sea turtle Caretta caretta in
order to learn more about the overall current mating system and possibly give
rise to better-suited conservation efforts in the future. Sea turtles in
general are important to asses population dynamics and sex ratios with their temperature
dependent sex determination bias to ensure that there is a sustainable ratio in
these populations for the future. This sea turtle is endangered, not a shock,
so through this research surrounding operational sex ratios something could be
learned to help stabilize these populations. The work with operational sex
ratios is important as this is a contributing factor to population growth as it
takes into account the sexually active number of males and females ready to
mate at a given point in time. They concluded that there were three times more
females than males in the breeding ground at any one time- an interesting side
note is females will store sperm to maximize their reproductive success as
well. Males only mate once a year compared to females, which mate twice a year,
which also must be factored into the optimal operational sex ratio. The
effectiveness of these drones as tools to survey and identify males vs females
was also examined.
link:
3 comments:
Did they find that using drones proves to be effective? This is really interesting to me, especially because my research synthesis project focused mainly on sex determination in turtles as a result of climate change. Since these turtles are already pre-inclined to produce female offspring, it is especially important that we focus our efforts on balancing the sex ratio. I think the use of drones could prove to be very successful in collecting data since modeling techniques are the norm regarding conservation and climate change related studies.
Great summary Corey! I also agree with Michelle! Did they end up finding the drones a useful way to monitor the turtles? I think that focusing efforts on balancing sex ratios in turtles is also important because if one sex was dominant over the other (meaning there were more females than males, or more males than females) , this could potentially lead to problems finding mates, increased competition, and as a result, hindered production of offspring. Another thing I found interesting about your article would be that the females are able to store sperm from their mates. I also read about that occurring in green anoles (Anolis carolinensis) too, when I was writing my natural history blog post on anoles. The females' ability to store sperm is a reproductive advantage because it allows for delayed fertilization to occur, which also allows the females to be more selective with what mates they want to fertilize their eggs. This was one of the topics we discussed in lecture, and it's nice that your article ties that topic in too!
Interesting research! Females mate every other year, not twice a year (biennial vs. biannual).
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