Mystic White Sri Lankan Sea Turtles

Now there's a title to get your attention. Sounds like a great name for a rock group, doesn't it? While Andrew and I didn't get as far south as Sri Lanka when we visited India in March my parents visit the island regularly and during one of their visits they saw this:

Isn't it beautiful and interesting and creepy all at the same time? The sea turtle was being held at a turtle conservation site south of Colombo because it wouldn't survive in the wild without its color to camouflage it from predators. Guess what the Sri Lankans named the turtle? Just guess.

"Michael Jackson." Yes, I speak the truth. They're HUGE Michael Jackson fans in that area of the world. Cried for days at his demise.


Apparently they started the center to preserve the turtles because locals would eat the eggs, depleting the population. So they started paying people to turn in the eggs instead (10 rupees an egg Mom thought, or about 2 cents) and then they "plant" the eggs in rows along the beach with little row markers showing the time of planting. Then twenty-eightdays later the eggs hatch and they release the babies at night to protect them against predators flocking to the free buffet.


The eggs are like perfect little ping pong balls only leathery and they're heavy because they're full of liquid (and baby turtle obviously). But I digress . . . could it get any cuter? It's like this post was sponsored by Precious Moments. These are pictures my Dad took and here's Mom holding her very own sea turtle. Makes me wish we'd got down to Sri Lanka.

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