Recent News
Top lionfish experts to help BermudaFriday, October 05, 2012
FRIDAY, OCT. 5: The Western Atlantic’s leading authorities on lionfish management are to run a two-day workshop with some of the island’s key environmental figures next week.
Story of the cahow goes international
Friday, October 05, 2012
FRIDAY, OCT. 5: The story of how Bermuda’s cahow was brought back from the brink of extinction will hit bookstores across the world next week.
Popular Zoological Society employee dies of cancer
Friday, September 28, 2012
Friends and family yesterday paid tribute to Bermuda Zoological Society’s educational boat captain Tim Hasselbring, who has died from cancer aged 38.
Young dad's death devastates family
Friday, September 28, 2012
FRIDAY, SEPT. 28: A heartbroken wife has spoken of her family’s devastating loss after the death of her husband from cancer.
'A visionary with an infectious enthusiasm for life'
Friday, September 28, 2012
FRIDAY, SEPT. 28: Tributes from Tim Hasselbring’s close friends and colleagues have poured in from across the island in the wake of his death.
About
GovernanceAbout Us
Newsletter
Latest News
Gift & Bookstore
Contact
General Inquiries
info@bzs.bm
Latest News
All the latest updates and news from the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo, one of Bermuda's leading visitor attractions!
Owain Johnston-Barnes
Published Oct 10, 2016 at 8:00 am (Updated Oct 10, 2016 at 12:46 am)
Historic discovery: almost 90 turtles hatched last summer
Mystery surrounds the origin of turtle hatchlings that shocked the island last summer.
Described by some as Bermuda’s “natural history event of the century”, almost 90 green turtles hatched last August at Builder’s Bay — the first recorded turtle hatching on the island for more than 90 years.
Despite genetic testing of several hatchlings who died before reaching the water, the origin of the turtle remains unknown.
Some believed that the hatchlings were the delayed result of the Operation Green Turtle transplant operation between 1968 and 1978, in which turtle eggs were brought to the island from Costa Rica by David Wingate.
Conservationists had hoped the turtles would return to Bermuda to nest when mature. Female turtles reach sexual maturity between the age of 25 and 35, but a turtle laying eggs for the first time at the age of 40 is not impossible.
Meanwhile, a second theory was that the female turtle could have come from the Florida population, which has boomed in recent years as the state has increased its own conservation efforts
However, according to a recent article in Hakai Magazine, genetic tests have found that there is a less than ten per cent chance the turtles descended from either Floridian or Costa Rican stocks.
Ann Meylan, a Florida-based sea turtle biologist who was on the island at the time of the hatching, working with the Bermuda Turtle Project, told the magazine that she collected tissue from three dead hatchlings, sending the samples to a genetics expert at the University of Georgia.
Dr Meylan suggested to the magazine that the turtles might have migrated from Mexico, which also saw an increase in turtle hatchings last year, but added: “The female turtle’s origin will have to remain a mystery for the time being.”
Green turtles were once very common in Bermuda, but use of the turtles for food and the increase of pests like rats severely diminished their numbers.
The hatchlings were first discovered by a member of the public, who noticed one turtle attempting to cross the road near the beach. He took the animal to the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo, and a search of the area revealed almost a dozen of the animals struggling in long grass.
Researchers later found a total of 87 eggs buried in the beach, the majority of which appeared to have successfully hatched.