On the Growth, Care and Behavior of Loggerhead Turtles in Captivity

Abstract

A nest containing 135 eggs of Caretta caretta was found on Bogue Banks, Beaufort, N. Carolina, presumably on the morning it was made. The eggs were transferred and reburied in sandy beaches near the U. S. Fisheries laboratory. Eggs placed where the "nest" was covered by water several times during high tides rotted. The 100 eggs buried where the flood tides did not reach them fared better, since 90 of them hatched. The incubation period was 64 days. All except 2 of the young died within 1-2 mo. The animals that survived were kept in a heated building during the winter and in outside pens during the summer. In 41/2 yrs. they increased in length from about 30 mm. (on the median line of the plastron) at hatching to approximately 42.15 cm. At the age of nearly 6 years, when the animals were liberated, they weighed respectively 55 and 61 pounds. Wild loggerhead turtles kept in outside inclosures, containing only a few feet of water at low tide, died (presumably of cold) during the winter.