Nesting Ecology of the Hawksbill Turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, in Guadeloupe, French West Indies from 2000–07

Abstract Hawksbills have been the focus of conservation efforts over several decades and their status in the Caribbean is continuously being evaluated. Surprisingly, it appears that the island of Guadeloupe hosts one of the largest Hawksbill populations in this region, highlighting the importance of making the most recent data available for the purposes of wildlife management. Numbers of nesting females and other biometric data collected over eight nesting seasons are presented as well as a number of biological observations unique to this population. A total of 452 females were tagged, 89 of which were thought to have been previously tagged, and 58 remigrants (turtles tagged in previous seasons) were observed. Four of the remigrants were seen in three different nesting seasons, and one was seen in four. Mean minimum curved carapace length was 87.9 cm, and mean clutch size varied significantly between two study years (2002: 137 ± 26 eggs; 2004: 159 ± 29 eggs). One turtle laid a clutch of 276 eggs, the largest ever recorded for a Hawksbill. The initial estimate of the nesting population in Guadeloupe is encouraging and perhaps is a sign of increasing numbers in the wider Caribbean region. This information is important when considering the status of this endangered species, and these data need to be easily accessible to the conservation community.

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