Life Sciences Commons^™

Population And Kin Structure Of Hawksbill Turtles: Insights On Natal Homing Precision, Time To Maturity And The Male Component Of The Breeding Population, Kathryn Erin Levasseur

Theses and Dissertations

Marine turtles have long endured population declines and face a growing number of contemporary threats, highlighting the need for population assessments and conservation action. Research on these species, however, remains a challenge due to complex and extensive oceanic life cycles that hinder direct observation. The pelagic, post-hatchling life stage is particularly difficult to track, preventing empirical research of fundamental behavior and life history traits such as natal homing precision and time to sexual maturity. Also, much of our current knowledge of marine turtles comes from nesting females and hatchlings, stages of the life cycle that are easy to observe. Far …