Migratory corridor linking Atlantic green turtle, Chelonia mydas, nesting site on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea to Ghanaian foraging grounds.

ABSTRACT: This study uses satellite telemetry to track post-nesting movements of endangered green turtles (Chelonia mydas) (n = 6) in the Gulf of Guinea. It identifies a migratory corridor linking breeding grounds of Atlantic green turtles nesting on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, to foraging grounds in the coastal waters of Accra, Ghana. Track lengths of 20-198 days were analyzed, for a total of 536 movement days for the six turtles. Migratory pathways and foraging grounds were identified by applying a switching state space model to locational data, which provides daily position estimates to identify shifts between migrating and foraging behavior. Turtles exhibited a combination of coastal and oceanic migrations pathways that ranged from 957 km to 1,131 km. Of the six turtles, five completed thei

SUBMITTER: Mettler E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6588206 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature