Journal
AUSTRAL ECOLOGY
Volume 43, Issue 3, Pages 309-315Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/aec.12568
Keywords
ghost crab; predation; sea turtle nest; yellow-spotted goanna
Categories
Funding
- Nest to Oceans Turtle Protection Program - Australian Government
- Nest to Oceans Turtle Protection Program - Queensland Government
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Squamate reptiles rely heavily on visual and chemical cues to detect their prey, so we expected yellow-spotted goannas (Varanus panoptes) which are predators of sea turtle nests on mainland beaches in northern Australia would use these cues to find sea turtle nests. Ghost crabs (Ocypode ceratophthalmus and Ocypode cordimanus) are also common on Australian sea turtle nesting beaches and frequently burrow into sea turtle nests. However, the potential for ghost crab burrowing activity at sea turtle nests to signal the location of a nest to goannas has not been investigated. Here, we used camera traps and presence of tracks at nests to record goanna activity around selected nests during the incubation period and 10 days after hatchling turtles emerged from their nests. We also recorded the number of ghost crab burrows around nests to evaluate ghost crab activity. Our results indicated that nest discovery by goannas was independent of nest age, but that the nest visitation rate of goannas and crabs increased significantly after a nest had been opened by a goanna or after hatchlings had emerged from the nest. There was no apparent connection between ghost crab burrows into a nest and the likelihood of that nest being predated by goannas.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available