A Sea Turtle's Life
Darkness. Darkness everywhere. Darkness and the muffled sound of waves crashing against the beach.
I move. The Eggshell around me is constricting my movements, so I break it open. Immediately, sand rushes through the opening. I shove it away and dig my way to the surface.
It is dark here too, but not as dark as it was underground. Blinking stars and the shining moon illuminate the night.
Around me, dozens, hundreds of my brothers and sisters hatch. We all make our way to the ocean, as fast as we can. But not everyone is fast enough. Ghost crabs attack, seemingly out of nowhere. I run faster and try to ignore the fact that the number of my siblings is dropping steadily.
The ocean! It is finally close. I can see the waves I only heard before, now crashing against the wet sand. With all my remaining energy, I sprint into the water. Finally, I can relax.
A shadow flashes to my left and another one of my siblings vanishes. This time into the mouth of a hungry barracuda. The water isn’t safe either. Scared for my life, I hide in the deep seaweed and wait until it is safer.
So many of my siblings are dead. Eaten by predators. I’m lucky to have survived.
For ten years, I live in the ocean, swimming from here to there, growing up. And then, I finally return to the beach I was born at.
It is as calm as I remembered it. The same stars sparkle over the white sand. But this time, there aren’t hundreds of hatchlings running for their life. This time, the adults have gathered at the shore to mate.
My chosen male doesn’t follow me to the beach after we mated, I go on this journey by myself. Digging the hole, this time the opposite way. 100 eggs land in my nest. How many of them will survive? Will any of them? It is highly unlikely that I will ever meet my children. And even if I meet them, they will not recognize me. And I won’t recognize them.
I bury my children in the sand that will keep them safe for the weeks to come. Hopefully, they’ll get a chance to hatch and won’t be eaten as eggs by any predators. If I could, I would take care of them, but sea turtles don’t do that.
I must abandon them here, all alone, at the mercy of nature. And I will repeat this every few years.
Maybe in a decade or two, I’ll be laying my eggs in the presence of one of my children. We won’t know each other, but we will be together.
I’ll just have to make sure I’ll survive until then.
Sources:
List of Predators of Baby Sea Turtles
Got a scientific topic which you want to see as a story? Leave me a comment!
Check out @steemstem and the #steemSTEM channel in steemit.chat and consider following the curation trail on Streemian to support scientists on steemit!
Picture taken from pixabay.com
Many people who ignore the sea punhi. Se will they be (punhi) inanimate objects. Not from just. The community also does not guard against coastal populations that result in extinct sea punhi. I am very afraid it happens. In fact people only use from the sea punyi, like taking sea punyi eggs, but also do not take care and take care of the sea punyi it well. After that, people just let it go.
It so sad to see on the news that their nesting area get damage and stuff, or people digging up their eggs to eat....
For the 10 years you need to escape sharks and boats too XD
next time try to do one about jelly fish XDD
I float, i float and float, i sting and float and float
"Hmm tasty fish!" "I float and float..."
i secrete enzymes and float and float haha
Fuck, there is the turtle from the last post! I stop floating because I got eaten
lol, good one!!
One sad thing is though, if they lay their close to people. The lights can distract the baby turtles and instead of heading towards the sea, they might go towards lights they are seeing from signposts, houses, roads..
It's a sad, sad thing.
Lovely story about the see turtle. It is a spectacular of nature when all eggs on a beach hatch at the same time and thousands of mini turtles are fleeing into the surf.
If you are interested in supporting animal helping foundations, you may have a look at this post :)
https://steemit.com/animals/@ddot/vonate-for-aid-2-borneos-orangutan-s-help-abel-and-her-tribe
Fantastic. I love how all these nature documentaries that document the baby turtle's battle to get to the water, and portray it as if once they are in there it's all over and they are safe forever more! When really it's just the big, scary beginning! Turtles are such beautiful critters.
Good story, reminds me of a carton.
This article is very useful for a proverb, a good understanding to pass on to educators.
Thank you for sharing and I share your articles for my friends who understand about the proverb.
risks everywhere...
Dear author. I read your messages and I liked your thoughts. Therefore, it would be interesting to know your opinion about the next draft https://steemit.com/project/@skripi76/project-kit
Thank you man for a pleasant reading. How and where they breed, I would love to know. Thank you in advance
That depends on the specific species of sea turtles, most lay their eggs in tropical regions. When it comes to the question how exactly their sex works, I recommend the series about sex in the animal kingdom by @mobbs
Thanks
This post has been ranked within the top 80 most undervalued posts in the first half of Jul 25. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $11.93 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Jul 25 - Part I. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
Stop
We apologize for any inconvenience. You will no longer receive these comments on your posts.