Friday, May 14, 2010

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:

Albino Turtle 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.

Sea Turtle
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.

Sea Turtles in Sri Lanka
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.

Sponsored by Storkie.com for baby birth announcements.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing! I wish I always had time to comment on your great posts, but I just had to say that this literally took my breath away! =)

Carina said...

That's beautiful! My son will be so excited to see that picture. He has a thing for sea creatures.

Mrs. Ohtobe said...

Wow - what beautiful creatures.

Janelle said...

So, is it albino, or what? It seems odd that a creature would naturally occur that way (as a species) yet because of it, they wouldn't be able to survive.

Roo said...

That turtle is beautiful. Contrast of the shell to the white is amazing.

Scribbit said...

Yes albino. Though it's rare. It's one of those genetic anomalies that is deadly for the particular creature who gets stuck with it.

Viki said...

I agree about that turtle. Kinda gives me the creeps but I bet if I was there I wouldn't be able to stop looking at it LOL. Very interesting.

Jenna said...

It almost doesn't even look real! Amazing! Who'd have thunk?

And on a side note, you sure resemble your cute mom!

Stephanie said...

You described them exactly right: "beautiful and interesting and creepy."

stephanie@mtropolitanmama.net

Prue said...

That is simply amazing that an animal, as you said, looks cool and creepy and is alive and well in a country like India. The colors in the turtle make it look like stone, with perfect markings on the shell.