Suchergebnisse

The Bundaberg coast is the southern limit for reproduction by Chelonia depressa in eastern Australia.
Here the species lays 2.84 � 0.78 (mean � SD) clutches per breeding season with a renesting interval of
15.99 � 1.89 days. When successful nesting does not occur on a nesting crawl the female returns after
1.17 � 1.07 d for another attempt. The mean remigration interval is 2.65 � 0.92 years and the average
female is estimated to have a reproductive life of between 2.05 and 2.55 breeding seasons. The
estimated annual recruitment rate of neonate nesting females into this colony is 27.2 � 10.8% of the
population. The females return repetitively with a high degree of accuracy to the same small nesting
beach within a single breeding season and in successive breeding seasons. The reproductive strategy of
C. depressa compared with that of other sea turtles appears to involve an increase in hatchling size, to
reduce predation, achieved by laying relatively large eggs. However, only a few small clutches are laid in
a breeding season, so that seasonal fecundity for the species is low relative to that in other sea turtles such
as C. mydas. Because its reproductive life is longer, C. depressa has a total fecundity only slightly less
than that of C. mydas.

Between 1968 and 1981, a total of 813 adult female flatback turtles were tagged while nesting on
Queensland beaches. Eight have been recovered at a distance, 216-1300 km north of their respective
nesting beaches, in waters between the mainland and the Great Barrier Reef. The species' principal
feeding grounds seem to be in turbid, shallow inshore water off north-eastern Australia and in the Gulf
of Carpentaria; there are no records beyond the continental shelf.

Crab I. in north Queensland supports a large all-year nesting population of Chelonia depressa and
occasional nesting by Eretmochelys imbricata and Lepidochelys olivacea. Measurements of nesting
turtles, eggs, nests, hatchlings are summarized. A preliminary model of C. depressa egg and hatchling
mortality gave values for the proportion of eggs producing hatchlings into the sea ranging from 48%
to 89% in different months. The nesting distribution of C. depressa is reviewed and Crab I. identified
as its most significant breeding beach.

Low-density nesting by hawksbill turtles at Campbell I., Torres Strait, is described. The average female
measured 83.2 cm in carapace length, weighed 51.6 kg and laid three clutches per season with a
renesting interval of 14.7 days. The average clutch contained 131.8 eggs, mean egg weight was 26 g
and mean diameter was 3.6 cm. Hatchling weight was 14.3 g, mean period to emergence was 55
days. Varanid predation is described. Scute variation of adults and hatchlings is summarized.