Gail Schofield
In-water Habitat Utilisation by Endangered Male Loggerhead Sea Turtles at the Mediterranean’s Largest Rookery
(Laganas Bay, National Marine Park of Zakynthos, Greece)
SUMMARY
In this study three adult male loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) were tracked using GPS transmitters
from their breeding grounds on the Greek island of Zakynthos, to their foraging grounds and back to the
breeding grounds within a one year period.
We found that, when at the breeding ground, the males occupied a similar core home range size
(50% estimator; range: 2.9-19.7 km2) to that of breeding females, with movement being restricted to
a 7.5 km tract of coastline. Two males migrated out of the breeding area in late May, prior to the onset
of nesting, while one male remained resident to the island throughout the year. Plasticity in the foraging
strategy was also recorded with one migrant foraging at oceanic sites, while the other two males foraged
at coastal locations. This study presented a novel combination of both long-term and high resolution tracking
provides a clear picture of local and broad scale movement patterns of adult male loggerhead sea turtles.
