Southwood AAQ943

Spatial movements and foraging habitat of leatherback sea turtles from the St. Croix, USVI nesting population

A project of .

click map for full-size version Southwood's 8-day internesting interval at St. Croix, USVI.

Full-Size Map (63KB)

Species: Leatherback
Life Stage: Adult
Gender: Female
Release Date: 2008-05-20 04:02:00
Release Location: St. Croix, USVI
Last Location: 2008-05-28 06:05:00

Background

This adult female leatherback (155cm CCL/113cm CCW) was tagged with a satellite transmitter and given a stomach temperature pill on 20-May-2008, while nesting at Sandy Point National Wildlife Regfuge (SPNWR), St. Croix, USVI. The turtle was named "Southwood" after the principle investigator of this project, Dr. Amanda Southwood, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Southwood traveled a minimum straight-line distance of 406 km during a 8.0 internesting period. Southwood returned on May 28 to lay her 5th clutch of the 2008 nesting season and her transmitter was retrieved from her carapace. The transmitter contained archival data for depth, stomach temperature and water temperature.

Southwood began nesting at SPNWR in 1997.