TURTLES’ BREEDING GROUND

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28284, 23 May 1957, Page 10

TURTLES’ BREEDING GROUND

Speculation On N.Z. Beaches (New Zealand Press Association) WHANGAREI, May 22. Belated consideration of the discovery some years ago of a young turtle on the Ninety Mile Beach, has caused speculation whether they breed there. It is a line of thought suggested by Mr C. W. McCann, vertebrate zoologist at the Dominion Museum, Wellington. He is preparing a paper on the occurrence of marine turtles and snakes in New Zealand waters, and a few weeks ago appealed for information. Among his correspondents was Mr J. T. B. Taaffe. Mr McCann wrote to him that another report concerned a young example of the hawksbill turtle, and Mr Taffe’s discovery of a large turtle of the same species in the same area, four months earlier, seemed to indicate that the Ninety Mile Beach might occasionally form a breeding ground for this species. Their occurrence in New Zealand waters had been overlooked until August, 1956, when a young female was stranded on Muriwai beach. This was thought to be the first recorded in New Zealand waters. However, Mr Taaffe’s turtle antedated it by almost two decades, and was the first authentic record of which Mr McCann was aware.