Talking Turtles: Blog

La Escobilla

La Escobilla

By Kartik Shanker | May 22, 2012 | Kartik Shanker

One million nests a year at La Escobilla in Mexico. Compared to ridley nesting beaches on the west coast of India or the east coast of Africa that get 10 nests per year, that number sounds astronomical. Or for that matter, when compared to the much touted mass nesting...
The Green Lagoon

The Green Lagoon

By Kartik Shanker | March 30, 2012 | Kartik Shanker, Lakshadweep

The male green turtle with a small hole in his carapace swam ahead of us in the Kavaratti lagoon without the least concern about our presence. Bharti, my Ph.D. student, and I followed him for nearly half an hour. Male green turtles are known to make amorous advances...
LA diary: Scrambled eggs, unscrambled minds

LA diary: Scrambled eggs, unscrambled minds

By Kartik Shanker | | Andamans, Kartik Shanker

Having just eaten a breakfast of eggs, rice and tomato ketchup, a combination that I had not tried before, I lay in a hammock not far from a quiet and sun-dappled stream. In the shade of a forest in the arms of a bay. On the west coast of an island in the middle of...
LA diary: The leatherbacks of Little Andamans

LA diary: The leatherbacks of Little Andamans

By Kartik Shanker | March 22, 2012 | Andamans, Kartik Shanker

About a year ago, as we were being tossed around in our small dunghi at Alcock Point, I wondered why we did this for a living. I was returning then from attaching three satellite transmitters to leatherback turtles on West Bay in Little Andamans. Coming around Alcock...