Baby sea turtles are an energetic bunch. As soon as they emerge from their sandy nests they scramble down the beach and swim out to sea. This frantic burst of activity helps the turtles evade predators, but it can be a real headache for researchers who want to gather measurements from these tiny, squirming subjects. […]
turtles
Baby turtles work together to dig themselves out of a nest hole
Baby sea turtles work together to dig their way out of sandy nests, and the more of them there are, the less energy they use doing it. We knew of this group-digging behaviour, called social facilitation, for a long time, but the reasons for teamwork were unclear. Possible explanations included speeding up nest escape or […]