Protecting Malta’s Endangered Species: University Researchers Team Up With ERA To Study Turtles
University of Malta researchers have teamed up with ERA for a study on the reproductive behaviour of the loggerhead sea turtles from the Maltese Islands.
Besides being the first scientific study to use genetic markers to better understand this behaviour of these turtles, it also utilised dead hatchlings and undeveloped dead embryos collected by the Environment and Resources Authority from recorded nesting sites between 2020 and 2022.
The Conservation Biology Research Group led by Adriana Vella, has been leading long-term field research on sea turtles in Malta and the results of the genetic research on dead nestling remains from the islands have been published in a scientific peer reviewed journal Animals in its special issue dedicated to endangered species worldwide entitled “Protecting Endangered Species”.
The article is titled Conservation Genetics of the Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Caretta caretta, from the Central Mediterranean: An Insight into the Species’ Reproductive Behaviour in Maltese Waters.
Data generated from the genetically analysed specimens were used for nesting site fidelity and parentage analyses. Results of this research show that some turtles laid more than one nest within the same nesting season while detecting an instance of multiple paternity. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the Biology of the species in Maltese waters, which is a requirement for effective conservation management.
This Research Group from the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Malta, is active in studying various other aspects of the species Caretta caretta, while also training research students in the valuable and versatile skills required to decrease the gaps of knowledge on sea turtles and their urgent effective conservation needs.
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