Comparison of the activity budget between wild and reared juvenile hawksbill turtles

Abstract

Headstarting is one of the biggest challenges for the sea turtle conservation program. This program should be conducted with adequate evaluations like influence on local ecosystem including natal populations of target species. As a first step toward evaluation of the headstarting program of hawksbill turtles Eretmochelys imbricata, we compared the general activity budget between wild and reared turtles under natural conditions. The acceleration data logger was used as a motion detector. Four wild and three reared turtles with the loggers were released in Yaeyama Islands, Okinawa prefecture, Japan. Time-series data of depth and surging acceleration were obtained for ca. 4 days. The activities of turtles were divided into "active" or "non-active (i.e. rest)" using surging acceleration. Our results showed no significant difference in the activity budget between wild and reared turtles during monitoring periods.