vellavu
Scooby
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2015
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Watch a baby sea turtle being hypnotised so we can weigh it
“We often heard about novice researchers dropping hatchlings,” says Mohd Uzair Rusli, a biologist at the University of Malaysia Terengganu in Kuala Terengganu. A drop in the lab from table height can be deadly, damaging their fragile internal organs.
The team has now found a trick for putting the baby turtles into a trance to safely study them. Mohd Uzair had noticed that hatchlings will stop moving if placed in a dark container – probably because they rely on visual clues when moving away from their nest.
He also observed that they would stop moving if stacked on top of one another – reminiscent of the Dr Seuss story Yertle The Turtle. This might be because placing turtles on top of each other replicates the pressure they would feel on their bodies from other hatchlings while still in their nest.
“We often heard about novice researchers dropping hatchlings,” says Mohd Uzair Rusli, a biologist at the University of Malaysia Terengganu in Kuala Terengganu. A drop in the lab from table height can be deadly, damaging their fragile internal organs.
The team has now found a trick for putting the baby turtles into a trance to safely study them. Mohd Uzair had noticed that hatchlings will stop moving if placed in a dark container – probably because they rely on visual clues when moving away from their nest.
He also observed that they would stop moving if stacked on top of one another – reminiscent of the Dr Seuss story Yertle The Turtle. This might be because placing turtles on top of each other replicates the pressure they would feel on their bodies from other hatchlings while still in their nest.