After the disappointment of not seeing a single nesting turtle last night, the sight of baby loggerhead turtles tonight made me forget about the missed opportunity. They were so, so cute.Tonight, we had dinner at the Centro Ecologico Sian Ka'an (CESiaK) education center's dining room. Dinner was pan fried grouper served with rice and veggies. The condiments were two salsas - one cilantro and the other habanero. The grouper was exceptionally fresh fish and a bite of that topped with a bit of the cilantro was just divine. The best piece of fish I have had in ages!
I was so absorbed into eating my dinner, in fact, that I didn't hear the men walking into the room. I didn't notice a darn thing until my brother showed up with a baby logger head turtle in the palm of his hands.
This thing was just precious to look at and watch. The fact that the head is a bit large in proportion to the rest of the body made the baby turtle even cuter. I touched the shell and it was hard. Somehow, I was expecting it to be soft.
Perhaps it was just because of the position of my brother's hands but to me, it looked like the wee little thing was paddling in the direction that would have led it to the sea.
My brother pointed to the bucket that held a slew of baby loggerheads They were all hatched last night and all from one nest. The conservationists at the center were going to be releasing the entire lot into the sea later on tonight.
They were an active bunch!
If I remember correctly, someone said that only 1 out of every 100 hatchlings make it to adulthood. The rest are food for predators. That's nature but it's still kind of sad to think that there's a chance that none of the hatchlings in the bucket will survive to carry on the species.
