KLEPTOPARASITISM

Kleptoparasitism: 

klepto: Greek κλέπτης ("thief") and κλέπτω ("steal") + parasitos: παράσιτος ("person who eats at the table of another")

Meaning: The parasitic theft of captured prey, nest material, etc., from animals of the same or another species; such as the theft by a gull* of a featherwight GoPro camera from a tourist on the French Riviera.

*Possibly a European herring gull (Larus argentatus).

(European herring gull. Credit: Kulac via Wikimedia Commons.)

The gull video reminded me of another wild travel video shot by a sea turtle on a "stolen" underwater camera.

The sea turtle video is more likely a case of entanglement than of kleptoparasitism.

WHERE THE TURTLES ARE

This map gives a global snapshot of 1,167 nesting sites of the endangered green turtle (Chelonia mydas). The species boasts the largest nesting range of all sea turtles.

The map is also the grand-prize winner of this year's International Conservation Mapping Competition. Credit and kudos to Andrew DiMatteo, cartographer and database manager of the State of the World's Sea Turtles (SWOT) Project, and Associate in Research at Duke University. Kudos too to the hundreds of volunteers around the world who over a period of seven years shared their discoveries of nesting sites.

The map was first published in SWOT Report: The State of the World's Sea Turtles, Vol. 6. You can see completed SWOT maps for all sea turtle species here. And you can wend through other winners and notable contenders from the International Conservation Mapping Competition here.

(Green turtle hatchlings. From ScubaZoo.)

THE PELAGIC ZONE

PIELAGO from Rafa Herrero Massieu on Vimeo.

Here's some of the most beautiful footage of one of my favorite worlds—the bottomless blue waters far offshore known as the pelagic zone. Life here shines.

Whether you've had the good fortune to visit this realm or not, you're in for a treat with this short film by Rafa Herrero Massieu, shot in the waters around the Canary Islands. 

A few highlights to look out for, with timecodes:

• Rare underwater footage of a beaked whale (not sure which species): 01:10
• Common dolphins showing their gorgeous colors: 01:16
• An Atlantic spotted dolphin emitting signature whistles: 01:26
• Bryde's whale (I think, or else a Sei whale): 03:23

(Loggerhead turtle. Credit: ukanda via Wikimedia Commons.)

Because big life is relatively sparse in the pelagic zone, encounters between individuals tend to generate a lot of curiosity. 

You can see how all these species investigate the novelty of a person in their world—particularly the pilot whales at 03:00 and the triggerfish at 03:21.

For more of Rafa Herrero Massieu's films, visit his blog: NacidasDelMar (Born of the Sea), or his Vimeo page.

(Strata of the pelagic zone. Measurements in meters. From here.)

OMG, TURTLES!

edisto sea turtles from cole rise on Vimeo.

One day on the beach a group of sea turtle protectors, checking on nests, happened upon a hatching.

I'm not really sure why baby sea turtles are among the cutest of all living things. According to the authorities at Cute Overload, they express several of the important Rules of Cuteness:

• Rule of Cuteness #2: Look helpless.
• Rule of Cuteness #5: Fisheye lens + baby animal is always cute.
• Rule of Cuteness #9: Piles of a cute thing jack up a cuteness rating exponentially. 
• Rule of Cuteness #10: If you haven't grown into your feet yet, it's cute. 
• Rule of Cuteness #17: Have tiny ears.
• Rule of Cuteness #18: Have a teeny tiny tail.
• Rule of Cuteness #21: Eye Capsules, as in a baby wombat.
• Rule of Cuteness #27: "Chub", or small rolls underneath eyes.

Let's explore these premises with the following study aids:

(Photo from here.)

(Photo from here.)

(Photo of baby leatherback turtle from here.)

(Photo from here.)

Based on my Internet search for this blog post, I'd like to propose a new Rule of Cuteness pertaining specifically to baby sea turtles: 

• If your Google search doesn't return even a single porn image, it must be cute.

BON CHANCE

(From here.)

THE LONG-DISTANCE WANDERINGS OF LEATHERBACKS

I'm on a leatherback sea turtle thread at the moment—not the sole focus of DEEP BLUE HOME... but recurring characters. I love their wanderings.

Seriously cool-beans stuff is coming out of satellite tagging of these awesome creatures. Check out the track maps at the Caribbean Conservation Corporation.

You can adopt a leatherback and help fund the conservation work. I just adopted the lovely Panamanian leatherback Naya.

From the CCC website:

"NAVIGATION: In the open ocean, sea turtles encounter strong currents; they have only modest vision, they can only raise their heads several inches out of the water, and there are often no visible landmarks. Even with these limitations, sea turtles regularly navigate long distances to find the same tiny stretch of nesting beach. How they do it is one of the greatest mysteries in the animal kingdom, and finding an answer has been the focus of generations of researchers. One promising new theory on how sea turtles navigate suggests that they can detect both the angle and intensity of the earth's magnetic field. Using these two characteristics, a sea turtle may be able to determine its latitude and longitude, enabling it to navigate virtually anywhere. Early experiments seem to prove that sea turtles have the ability to detect magnetic fields. Whether they actually use this ability to navigate is the next theory being investigated."

RANDOM EXCERPT FROM "DEEP BLUE HOME:" SEA TURTLES IN THE ICE REALM

"It's not surprising to see a leatherback up here
on the edge of the ice, since this is one of the most traveled
of all vertebrate species, perpetually on the move along
jellyfish highways between the tropics and the high latitudes."

DEEP BLUE HOME
-Chapter 14
The Distant Geography of Water

Photo courtesy COML.org