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- Title
Ecology of juvenile hawksbills ( Eretmochelys imbricata) at Buck Island Reef National Monument, US Virgin Islands.
- Authors
Hart, Kristen; Sartain, Autumn; Hillis-Starr, Zandy-Marie; Phillips, Brendalee; Mayor, Philippe; Roberson, Kimberly; Pemberton, Roy; Allen, Jason; Lundgren, Ian; Musick, Susanna
- Abstract
Surveys of juvenile hawksbills around Buck Island Reef National Monument, US Virgin Islands from 1994 to 1999 revealed distributional patterns and resulted in a total of 75 individual hawksbill captures from all years; turtles ranged from 23.2 to 77.7 cm curved carapace length (CCL; mean 42.1 ± 12.3 cm SD). Juveniles concentrated where Zoanthid cover was highest. Length of time between recaptures, or presumed minimum site residency, ranged from 59 to 1,396 days (mean 620.8 ± 402.4 days SD). Growth rates for 23 juveniles ranged from 0.0 to 9.5 cm year (mean 4.1 ± 2.4 cm yearSD). Annual mean growth rates were non-monotonic, with the largest mean growth rate occurring in the 30-39 cm CCL size class. Gastric lavages indicated that Zoanthids were the primary food source for hawksbills. These results contribute to our understanding of juvenile hawksbill ecology and serve as a baseline for future studies or inventories of hawksbills in the Caribbean.
- Subjects
HAWKSBILL turtle; ANIMAL young; MAMMAL growth; ZOANTHINARIA; BUCK Island Reef National Monument (United States Virgin Islands); ANIMAL behavior
- Publication
Marine Biology, 2013, Vol 160, Issue 10, p2567
- ISSN
0025-3162
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00227-013-2249-x