Loggerhead Sea Turtle (V2)

It's time for this young loggerhead turtle to go to work. We can tether turtles in these little clock harnesses put them into this tank and they'll swim in place. University of North Carolina biologist Canelo men study see turtles that are programmed from birth for an extraordinary journey. The mother turtles bury the eggs on the beach and then returned to the sea and the eggs hatch about 50 to 60 days later. The support for National Science Foundation Lomond is learning how these reptiles use the earth's magnetic field to navigate 5 to 10-year journey around the Atlantic Ocean. The turtles seem to inherit a set of responses that tell them what to do when they encounter specific magnetic fields at particular locations. This animal magnetism can be a lifesaver one field off Portugal triggers the turtles to turn south if they don't they'll likely die swept into frigid North Atlantic waters in one lab test turtles responded to magnetic field similar to what they would encounter off the coast of Florida the great majority of them turned southeast. Now, this is an exciting finding because south-easterly orientation in this part of the world would presumably take turtles further into the Gulf Stream so the turtles actually have what might be considered a crude Global Positioning System that is based on the earth's magnetic field. And check out this experiment these turtle moves may look odd. The turtles will actually act out there swimming behavior in air. But this wave simulator recreates the first environmental cue hatchling turtles respond to. And to swimming into waves is a highly reliable trick the turtles use to guide themselves up short.