{"id":33791,"date":"2026-06-27T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=33791"},"modified":"2026-06-27T08:31:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T13:31:36","slug":"loggerhead-turtles-on-cabo-verde-just-pulled-off-an-80-fold-nesting-boom-turning-the-beach-into-a-reptile-rave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/loggerhead-turtles-on-cabo-verde-just-pulled-off-an-80-fold-nesting-boom-turning-the-beach-into-a-reptile-rave\/33791\/","title":{"rendered":"Loggerhead turtles on Cabo Verde just pulled off an 80-fold nesting boom, turning the beach into a reptile rave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A quiet change began showing up on Boa Vista\u2019s beaches in 2018. Night patrol teams that once found five to 10 female loggerhead turtles<\/a> in a shift were suddenly seeing 20 to 30, and by 2021, some teams were counting 30 to 40 nesting females in a single night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, a long-term study has put numbers behind that nighttime surprise. Across three major nesting beaches on Boa Vista, loggerhead turtle nesting activity<\/a> increased 80-fold between 1998 and 2024, a rebound researchers link to years of local patrols, anti-poaching work, habitat protection, hatchery programs, and community involvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A beach success story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) are not built for quick comebacks. They live for decades, migrate across oceans, and females can take many years to reach breeding age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is what makes the Boa Vista trend so striking. The turtles that hatched early in the monitoring period would only have started returning as nesting adults around 2013 or 2014, according to marine turtle biologist Jeanette Wynecken, who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Loggerhead
Loggerhead hatchlings make their way across the sand, a fragile first step in the long recovery now being documented on Boa Vista.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince sea turtles age slowly and mature late, an analysis over such an extended time period is essential to understand the effect that conservation has on turtle populations,\u201d Wynecken told Mongabay. In practical terms, this is conservation measured not in months, but in generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numbers that stand out globally<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Boa Vista is not just seeing more nests. It is seeing densities that are unusual even when compared with other major loggerhead nesting sites around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read More: Landslides triggered by wild weather killed 58 ultra-rare orangutans, showing climate change doesn\u2019t play fair<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In Florida and Oman, two other globally important loggerhead areas, biologists have recorded up to about 965 nests per mile of beach. On Boa Vista, the three largest sites reached more than 35,000 nests per mile in 2021, according to the new study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That does not mean every beach in Cabo Verde is overflowing with turtles. But it does suggest that Boa Vista has become one of the most important loggerhead nesting aggregations anywhere, especially for the North East Atlantic population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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