Brazil – New video footage shared by the Wildlife Conservation Society shows the largest single gathering of turtles on the planet — and they’re babies!
The video shows hundreds of thousands of newly hatched Giant South American river turtles.
According to the conservation society, an estimated 80,000 adult female turtles begin nesting on the beach and laying eggs around late September along Guaporé/Inténez River, which borders Brazil and Bolivia.
“The annual nesting and hatching of the giant South American river turtle is one of Earth’s great natural spectacles. It is visually stunning, but also extremely important ecologically to the western Amazon ecosystem,” said Camila Ferrara, Aquatic Turtle Specialist for the WCS Brazil Program.
The Giant South American river turtle is the largest freshwater turtle in Latin America and can weigh up to 200 pounds.
Programs in Bolivia and Brazil aimed at protecting the turtles are fighting to preserve the reptiles population, which has been declining due to historical over-harvest for oil, meat, and trade.
“Safeguarding this population of giant South American river turtles takes a community approach,” said Scientific Director with WCS Colombia German Forero-Medina.
Collaborators are protecting the eggs from poachers, conducting a census of the nesting females, and collecting other data which will help inform a conservation plan for the species, which includes establishing a protected area to permanently safeguard nesting and hatching turtles, a press release from the WCS states.