Biology & monitoring

“One-in-a-thousand” is the expected survival rate of egg to adult. That means that only one egg out of every thousand laid will produce a successful breeding female. Research in iSimangaliso over the last 50 years revealed:

• That it takes about 36 years for a loggerhead turtle to mature;

•  From flipper tags we know that females return to the same beaches despite their wide-ranging distribution.

• Our loggerhead females are getting smaller.

• Ongoing research on genetics will assess adult sex ratios and finer scale population structure and help us to assess paternity.