When they hatch, two factors play into the direction they head
the first is lighting conditions. The majority hatch at night (there are a handful of species that hatch in daytime) – and use the light of moon and stars (and the reflections off the water) to orient themselves towards the water. The presence of man-made lights has been demonstrated to mess with their navigation, leading baby turtles into carparks and the like.
As a result, a lot of identified turtle nesting sites have lighting statutes, which limit colour, intensity, coverage etc of any man-made lighting in the area and may ban artificial lighting completely during nesting/hatching periods
the second is beach slope. When they hatch, baby turtles want go downhill, which *should* be to the water, however if they have been laid on the wrong side of a sand dune they will quite often travel down hill away from the water
When they hatch, two factors play into the direction they head
the first is lighting conditions. The majority hatch at night (there are a handful of species that hatch in daytime) – and use the light of moon and stars (and the reflections off the water) to orient themselves towards the water. The presence of man-made lights has been demonstrated to mess with their navigation, leading baby turtles into carparks and the like.
As a result, a lot of identified turtle nesting sites have lighting statutes, which limit colour, intensity, coverage etc of any man-made lighting in the area and may ban artificial lighting completely during nesting/hatching periods
the second is beach slope. When they hatch, baby turtles want go downhill, which *should* be to the water, however if they have been laid on the wrong side of a sand dune they will quite often travel down hill away from the water