There were a number of new turtles on the beach last night. I named two of them after my sister and brand-new niece. New turtles are uncommon, and these two seemed new to the whole chamber-digging experience, in addition to being new to the beach. One dug a hole that was too wide and kept sliding in herself! This made egg counting a challenge.
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| Use your imagination to see right flipper scooping |
The turtles dig their chambers beautifully. It is done with the shorter rear flippers. Here is a brief human-attempt description: Imagine putting your hand in a sock and stretching your fingers out. Then, palms down, form a scoop and pick up some “sand” with your fingers so that you carry it in your fingers (palm still facing down/backwards). Then toss to the side (towards your pinky). If you can understand these instructions – congratulations! You’ve passed the amazing imagination test and may be eligible to win a prize from the amazing imagination society!
The turtles form perfect scoops with their flippers, and systematically scoop sand out first with one flipper followed by the second, so that the hole maintains an almost spherical shape while getting deeper. They will also not do any extra work, so if some sand falls on their flipper they will toss it off before reaching in to dig out some more sand. They gauge the depth of the chamber by the length of their flipper – when they cannot dig out any more sand they stop and lay their precious eggs.
My hope is that by the time my niece is potty-trained, her namesake will have figured out how to dig the perfect chamber.
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