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Ridley Ranger locating a nest
Finding nesting turtles can be very difficult because the turtles blend in so well with the sand, and they are often covered in sand while nesting. Sometimes it is impossible to find the nest because a large portion of the tracks have blown away by the time that biologists arrive. During May of 2006, Dr. Donna Shaver, Chief of the Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery, started training Ridley to find nests, and he has been a member of the sea turtle team ever since.
During 2007, staff and volunteers spent five hours searching a site that had been found by beach patrollers on North Padre Island. Unable to find the nest, they marked the site and called in Ridley. He was brought to the site and found the nest immediately. Thanks to Ridley, 92 healthy hatchlings were successfully released from this nest in July.
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