Sea Turtles Hit the Road

FeeBee and Milton are about to go back to the wild.

The two six-year-old Loggerhead sea turtles have spent all of their lives until now in captivity as part of a national sea turtle sex-ratio study. Now the two are big enough to be released into the waters of Florida to make their own way.

"These turtles have meant so much to us and to the community," said Kirt Rusenko, a marine conservationist who worked with the pair at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton, Fla. "We will be monitoring them closely for the next year by using satellite tags to learn more about their behavior and movements."

FeeBee and Milton were part of a study led by Jeannette Wyneken, associate professor of biological sciences at Florida Atlantic University.

"The gender of a sea turtle usually cannot be determined until they are 15 to 25 years old," Wyneken said. "As part of this study, what we were able to develop was a way to identify their sex when they were three months old, and the information is helping us to address the implications of skewed sex-ratios in sea turtles."

Understanding sex ratios and how they change over time is critical for the recovery of the endangered species.

"Basically, we are identifying the baselines again which future changes in sex-ratios can be identified before they become so skewed that there are problems," Wyneken said. "It is critical that there are enough males and females to allow for successful breeding."

To celebrate the turtles' release into the wild, a goodbye party will take place on Sunday, Oct. 5, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, located at 1801 North Ocean Boulevard, Boca Raton. The event, which is open to the public, will include information about the rearing and care of FeeBee and Milton and the satellite tracking that is planned for when they are released.

--LiveScience Staff

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Image Credit: FAU/Gumbo Limbo