Tapiche Reserve Citizen Science Program: Annual Turtle Rescue

Every year thousands of turtles lay their eggs on the beaches of the Tapiche Reserve from June-September. The turtles and their eggs fetch a high price on the black market and are heavily poached outside of the reserve. We carefully collect eggs from the beaches, incubate them at our hatchery, and raise the babies in our nursery until they are strong enough to start their lives back in the wild. We may monitor the beaches before sunrise, midday, and especially late afternoon/evening. We collect data like nest location, species of turtle (Yellow-spotted Amazon River turtle-Podocnemis unifilis, Six-Tubercled Amazon River turtle-Podocnemis sextuberculata, Arrau turtle-Podocnemis expansa), how many eggs, time of day, relative air and water temperature and moon phase. In September when the eggs start hatching, we feed the babies with water lettuce collected from the lagoons, keep their nursery clean, and then start releasing them in small groups from February through April.