Self-sacrifice is what this Loggerhead turtle needed to lay its eggs on a beach in Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice, overnight from Sunday to Monday. Disturbed by a couple who thought they were “saving” her by taking her back to the sea, according to France 3 French Riviera, the female returned to dig the sand a few meters further to bury her future offspring there, told 20 minutes another walker.
And, since then, it’s been confirmed: eggs have indeed been observed. A real event and a first in the Alpes-Maritimes, specify Eric Hansen, Paca and Corsica director of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), and marine biologist Sidonie Catteau, project manager for the Marineland Foundation.
“A crazy event despite the anthropogenic pressure”
She was the first to be dispatched to the site to attest to the presence of the nest. “He was there, on the surface of the sand. On the other hand, if we are certain that the turtle has laid eggs, we do not know how many eggs are present, or even if they have been fertilized. It may happen that they are not. This has also been the case recently in Italy”, explains this specialist to 20 minutes. “In any case, it’s crazy, she still enthuses. It’s a crazy event for the department, despite the anthropogenic pressure. “Identical nests were observed last summer on the beaches of Valras (Hérault) as well as in Fréjus, in the Var, in 2020, or in 2018 in Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone (Hérault) but it is good unprecedented for this part of the Côte d’Azur.
“More than fifty years ago, when there were more Loggerheads on our coasts, there were undoubtedly other spawnings in the Alpes-Maritimes, but in any case we have no recent data”, abounds OFB director Eric Hansen. According to him, it is also a first in the Southeast this year. “We were told of an attempt on the Hyères side [dans le Var, plusieurs fois choisi par ces reptiles ces dernières années]but there too, the turtle had been disturbed by walkers,” he explains.
“A big black mass”
Jérémy Lebrun Slawik was one of the witnesses of the exceptional visit of this Caretta Caretta (the scientific name of this species of sea turtle, among the six present in the Mediterranean). On the night of Sunday to Monday, this young Azurean was out for a walk with a friend on the Villeneuve-Loubet beach when the latter’s dog “started barking while staring at a large black mass”, he says. To 20 minutes.
“It was by turning on the flashes of our phones that we saw that it was a Loggerhead turtle. She was digging the spawning pit. We took a few pictures and walked away to leave her alone, he says again. An hour later the nest was filled in and traces in the sand showed that it had returned to the sea.” Eric Hansen specifies that “after having laid eggs, the turtle performs a sort of sweeping motion, with increasingly wide circles , so as not to leave traces and thus protect the eggs from predators”. And any curious people.
“It can take 40 to 80 days”
This is precisely why its teams have since “secured” the place of laying which will remain secret, at least in our columns. He also recalls that if “the intentional disturbance of these protected species” can be the subject of a fine, trying to attack the nest and the eggs “is downright criminal”. So don’t touch.
The OFB also had a camera installed to monitor the site remotely and capture the outbreak. Hoping that small turtles actually return to the sea. When? “It can take 40 to 80 days, depending on many parameters, and in particular the grain size of the sand and the heat, specifies Sidonie Catteau. It has generally been found that a higher nest temperature is associated with longer incubation and vice versa. For this site, it is too early to say. » Measuring devices will be installed on site. This exceptional spawning on the Côte d’Azur should interest many researchers.