Here at Komandoo Maldives, we are very excited to announce that we are expecting baby turtles to hatch sometime in the first half of November so save the date if you’d like to share this special time with us!

On 15th September 2020, a turtle nested on the beach of our island, covering her clutch of eggs with sand before returning to the sea, she will not return to the nest. Incubation time for turtle eggs depends on the temperature and depth of the nest but on average, in the Maldives it takes between 49 and 62 days until hatching begins.

We expect there are over a 100 eggs in the nest, hawksbill turtles can lay over 200 eggs in a nest whereas green turtles lay up to 174, according to studies carried out by the Olive Ridley Project here in Lhaviyani Atoll. Once mature enough, the baby turtles will use their caruncle (small bump on their snout) to break the egg, their siblings will be doing the same thing at the sane time. It will take them 3-5 days to emerge from the nest, there’s a lot of digging to do for those very small flippers! Hatchlings usually emerge from the nest during the night when it is not so hot and there are likely to be less predators on the beach. Once free from the column of sand above the nest, it’s a dash for their lives across the beach and into the ocean. For every 1000 hatchlings, it is thought that just one will survive long enough to reach maturity and be able to reproduce.

If you’d like to share this special event with us, a stay during the first half of November will give you the best chance.

If you’d like to adopt a turtle please visit the Olive Ridley Project website for more information – a great Christmas gift idea for turtle lovers!

Photo by Emily Mundy