False crawls #11 and #12 raised hopes that last year’s record of 18 nests would be broken, but the turtles decided…not yet! At FC #11 in Ocean Sands, the turtle managed to dodge several canopy frames, crawling directly through one in her journey back to the ocean.
False Crawl #11. This turtle traveled her way around and through tent spiders.
The turtle crawled under a tent spider on her way out.
The incoming and outgoing tracks dodged a couple of canopy skeletons. No disturbed area at the end of the crawl indicated no nest was laid.
Intern Leslie examines the turnaround point in the dune. The turtle did not dig or throw sand over her track indicating a false crawl.
False Crawl # 12
If it wasn’t enough for Joel to find one crawl, he went and found two. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure that this second crawl was another without a nest site. There was, however, a slight amount of thrown sand covering a portion of her incoming tracks so Nest Response team members explored the site to make sure that there were no eggs. Aside from a labyrinth of ghost crab tunnels, they confirmed it to be a false crawl.
ATV rider looks over the turtles crawl which went all the way up onto the face of the dune before turning back around to the ocean.
Joel investigates the suspicious area along the incoming tracks.