Nest Temperatures and Duration Between Pipping and Emergence in the Loggerhead Sea Turtle in Southeastern North Carolina
Neville A, Webster W, Brooks W. 1989. Nest Temperatures and Duration Between Pipping and Emergence in the Loggerhead Sea Turtle in Southeastern North Carolina. Pages 131 - 133. In Eckert KL and Richardson TH: Proceedings of the ninth annual workshop on sea turtle conservation and biology. Jekyll Island, Georgia. February 7-11, 1989. National Oceanic Atmospheric Association
The interval between pipping and emergence has been reported to be 1-14 days with an average of five days (Kraemer and Bennett 1981, Demmer 1981, Mrosovsky 1988, Neville et al. 1988, Webster and Gouveia 1988), but no field methodology has been developed to document when pipping occurs. Demmer (1981) monitored the behavior of hatchlings in nests using a glass cover and noted that most hatchlings in the clutch pip together. Neville et al. (1988) compared nest temperatures at the top and middle of the nest to soil temperatures at similar depths. The temperature in the middle of the nest was parallel to and consistently warmer than the temperature at the top of the nest once metabolic heat became evident, usually mid-way through incubation. Five days before emergence there was an unexpected change in temperatures where the top became warmer than the middle. This fluctuation was believed to signify the onset of emergence due to the additional metabolic heat generated by the upward movement of hatchlings in the nest cavity.
- Type
- Conference Proceeding Paper
- Authors
- Neville, Ann; Webster, William; Brooks, William
- Units
- SFCN
- Keywords
- Breeding, Clutch, Eggs, Hatchlings, Nesting