Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles
By: Sam Nichols
Updated: April 23, 2010
Every April through mid-July, the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle crawls its way onto Texas beaches to lay her eggs. Unfortunately, the female turtle leaves the eggs unprotected. To ensure that the endangered turtle's population continues to rebound, volunters lend a helping hand, or in this case, a paw, to find the eggs and protect them until the hatchlings are read for release back into the Gulf.
Years of unregulated harvesting of eggs nearly destroyed the species. Dr. Donna Shaver works with her cairn terrier, Ridley to sniff out the nests of the turtles. Ridley has become a celebrity, making headlines for his conservation work with the turtles. Once Ridley locates the eggs, they are taken to the lab for incubation, then brought back to the beach as hatchlings and released.
