Kartik Shankertag:www.seaturtle.org,2007:/blog/kshanker//52005-09-26T18:23:06Z... full of words and images, signifying nothing ....Movable Type 3.2Favourite body parttag:www.seaturtle.org,2003:/blog/kshanker//5.462003-02-06T04:09:35Z2005-09-26T18:23:06ZKartik Shanker]]>
Its a sail, its a wing, its an elephants ear ... getting even more specific, my favourite turtle part is the rear flipper of the leatherback, especially when it comes sweeping out of the nest, all regal and majestic, like the world was built only for her flippers to carve a nest into Of course, it can get rather tedious when you've been watching it for a couple of hours or more, waiting for madam to nest so that you can collect your tissue or blood or whatever. And of course, its downright traumatic, when after the vigil in the rain, she just daintily (can leatherbacks be dainty ?) tucks her flippers in and marches away.]]>
How many leatherbacks does it take to make an arribada ?tag:www.seaturtle.org,2003:/blog/kshanker//5.452003-02-06T03:54:51Z2005-09-26T18:23:06ZKartik Shanker
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In terms of body mass, ten leatherbacks are roughly equal to a hundred ridleys. does that count ? And speaking of collision courses, leatherbacks that strayed into each others path didnt seem to be in the least concerned or even aware that this particular obstacle was a moving object with flippers and all. I did wait all season for a ridley and a leatherback to nest side by side, not common because they had neatly partitioned the 1 km nesting beach. Eventually, when it did happen, it was 50 metres from our camp, but I wasn't there. hmm, the wildlife photographers curse strikes again ....]]>
The Noon Turtletag:www.seaturtle.org,2003:/blog/kshanker//5.202003-02-04T03:38:41Z2005-09-26T18:23:06ZKartik Shanker]]>
Micheal Fricks exorcist turtle reminded me of a warm and sunny afternoon on the east coast of Great Nicobar. Bleary eyed after the morning nap, we were tramping through the littoral forest, looking for tree shrews, the little insectivores that are not shrews, and mostly don?t live on trees. The ones that evolutionary biologists thought were ancestral to primates, but now believe are most closely related to rabbits. Talk about a come down in life. Anyway, I digress. So, there we are, tramping, and looking seaward to see if we can catch a mirage of Sumatra in the shimmering heat, when we see this lumbering beast high up on the beach. In a tidal pool about 50 metres from the high tide line, she was wallowing like hippo in heat. First we thought she was just having fun, but gradually it dawned on us that the poor dear was trying to nest in the pool. I thought it might be the afternoon sun, but my leatherback expert friend, M.G. (and thats not Mahatma Gandhi) tells me that leatherbacks are not the Einstens of the turtle world. Just to keep pace with the madness, my assistants and partner resorted to chasing fish in the tidal pool, apparently with some hope of catching a few, while I expended several rolls of film on the turtle. Eventually she left, leaving us no clearer on how the leatherback mind works.]]>
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Its a sail, its a wing, its an elephants ear ... getting even more specific, my favourite turtle part is the rear flipper of the leatherback, especially when it comes sweeping out of the nest, all regal and majestic, like the world was built only for her flippers to carve a nest into Of course, it can get rather tedious when you've been watching it for a couple of hours or more, waiting for madam to nest so that you can collect your tissue or blood or whatever. And of course, its downright traumatic, when after the vigil in the rain, she just daintily (can leatherbacks be dainty ?) tucks her flippers in and marches away.]]>
