Recent News

Zoom Around the Sound hailed a success
Monday, April 11, 2016

The Zoom Around the Sound event has raised more than $15,000 for educational and conservation programmes.


Miracle on the Beach
Monday, April 11, 2016

Green turtles, visitors from the Caribbean, can be seen year round in Bermuda, August 2015 was the first time in over 100 years that green turtles had hatched from eggs laid on the island.


“Exploring Bermuda’s Flying Flowers” Event
Sunday, April 10, 2016

A lecture — “Exploring Bermuda’s Flying Flowers: The Seven Resident Butterflies Of Bermuda” — will be held at 7.00pm at Wednesday April 20th.


WILD Tales Spring 2016
Friday, April 01, 2016

Bermuda Zoological Society's Spring 2016 WILD Tales.


Hawk’s road to recovery
Wednesday, March 30, 2016

A rare Pigeon Hawk has been nursed back to health by staff at the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo after it was found stricken and unable to fly in a garden.



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Latest News

All the latest updates and news from the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo, one of Bermuda's leading visitor attractions!

Project reveals turtles are on the move
Royal Gazette
Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Owain Johnston-Barnes
Published Oct 25, 2017 at 8:00 am (Updated Oct 25, 2017 at 7:38 am)
 

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Shelling out: the Bermuda Turtle Project 2017’s
international course participants

Almost 200 turtles were plucked from the island’s waters this August as the Bermuda Turtle Project continued its conservation work.

While fewer turtles were found at offshore sites, the number of small turtles found closer to shore have risen.

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A fine specimen: Sandra Gallegos, from Mexico,
captures a healthy green turtle

A spokesperson for BTP said: “Following hatching on the nesting beach, sea turtles spend a few years out in the open ocean before moving into coastal habitats such as Bermuda.

“The increase in small turtles is not unexpected given the increase in the major nesting populations known to contribute to the green turtle aggregation in Bermuda. The organisation added that nesting populations in Costa Rica, Florida and Mexico have all grown thanks to conservation efforts.

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Gently does it: Abigail Alldis, a Bermuda participant,
gently releases a green turtle

BTP was first launched in 1968 to learn more about Bermuda’s turtles.

This year, volunteers and organisers visited 14 sites over a two-week period in August, catching and releasing 194 green turtles.

While fewer turtles and seagrass were found in areas like Fort St Catherine and Grotto Bay, other areas including Bailey’s Bay and Somerset Long Bay continued to be rich with turtles.

The spokesperson added: “Among the capture were 68 turtles that had been previously tagged, most in the same site as their original capture. One had a 12-year BTP history.”

The organisation said that the number of turtles in Bermuda has not changed significantly in recent years, their distribution has.

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Gotcha! Damany Calder, from Jamaica,
captures a green turtle in the shallows

The spokesperson said: “With most boating activity and observations by the community taking place near shore, it makes sense that we perceive there are more turtles, but so far it just looks like they are all moving closer to shore.”

The team also performed 17 necropsies, examining dead turtles to find out what killed them.

While the results were “not out of the ordinary”, more turtles appeared to have been hit by boats than in previous years.

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“This could well be because there were more boats out on the water in 2017 and our sea turtle hotline was promoted island- wide,” the organisation said.

“Six of the animal necropsies had propeller or blunt trauma scars indicative of boat strikes.

“Two died because of entanglement in monofilament fishing line and for the remainder we were not able to conclusively identify the cause of death. Unless the animals are fresh dead when they are examined, it is challenging to determine the cause of death.”

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This year, the BTP was assisted by environmental officers and biologists from Jamaica, Mexico, Guatemala, Anguilla, Costa Rica and the Turks and Caicos, along with two candidates from Bermuda.

Through the course, they were able to practise a number of research methods, discuss scientific papers, attend lectures and deploy a satellite transmitter.