We are always super-excited at this time of year – turtle nesting season.
Despite the fact that these days Mabul is getting a busier little island with more islanders and tourists alike, our mummy turtles still return year after year to nest on the island, many at the very front of our resort.
We are blessed on our tropical island to have not one but two variety of turtle that are both resident and come to nest.
The Hawkesbill turtle, which is a critically endangered animal and the green turtle, which is simply “endangered” appear to live in harmony together around the coastline of Mabul and our other islands close-by, but live two remarkably different lives.
To begin with, it is easy to identify one from the other for many reasons, least of all the distinctive head and carapace shape of the Hawkesbill.
Likewise, the Hawkesbill is often considerably smaller than the Green turtle, even at full size and old age and they both have a different diet, ranging from sponges and sea-grass to small crustaceans.
We actually have a wide range of knowledge about the Green and Hawkesbill turtles having managed our own private hatchery on the island for some time now.
Much of what we know comes from the expert advice and guidance of our good friend Dr. Pushpa, who heads up the Borneo Marine Research Institute at the University of Malaysia. For instance, in relation to Green Turtles we know that they possess excellent vision underwater. They do not have ears, but instead have ear canals that are covered by flaps of skin. Their sense of smell however is reported to be amazing, with an ability to smell food from huge distances away.
However, for everything that we do know about the lives of our turtle population, there is so much that still, after many years of research that we do not know. These are what we call the “lost years”, but that’s for another blog later!
You are on this page to find out about the babies right?
So here is how we help our turtle population on the island.
After years of evolution, the heavily pregnant females know what time of day to come onto the beaches of the island to nest. It is usually at night and this is down to the fact that there are less predators at night which could harm either the mothers or the unborn babies.
Our turtle patrollers for many years have watched the pregnant mothers struggle up the beach at the early hours of the morning to lay their eggs, an entire process which, at times can take up to 3 hours or more. After digging a sizeable hole in the sand, the pregnant mother then releases her eggs into the sand and buries the eggs before waddling back into the sea once more.
Following extensive training by our good friends at the University, Sabah Parks and WWF, we know what action to take next.
Only after the mother has returned to the sea, our staff will very carefully uncover the nest and transfer all of the eggs into our specially designed secure turtle hatchery on the beach-front.
Our hatchery is designed to include equal amounts of sun and shade, plus a deep walled fence area that is designed to keep out predators such as monitor lizards who may dig through the nest to try and get at the eggs.
Each nest is secured by a separate circular mesh ring which we tag with the variety of turtle and date that the nest was created.
Then the baby-sitting begins.
The actual gestation period of the turtle eggs depends on various factors, including species, but varies between 50 and 70 days.
Another amazing phenomenon happens when the babies finally break free from their nest and are born, nine times out of ten they will emerge at dusk or at night in order to increase their chances of survival.
Once emerged, they will want to make a frantic march towards the sea as their natural instinct.
The trained resort staff will collect the babies and then lead them to a stretch of sand at the seas edge and release them then into the sea.
Sometimes, our guests are fortunate enough to be around when this miracle happens as recently when our guests from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan lay witness to 2 nests of babies being released.
We wish the babies all the very best of luck in there travels, albeit that even with our help there is barely a 10% survival rate.
We hope to see those same babies return to us as mummies and daddies in their own right in years to come.
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