One turtle in a stack of nine kept the Georgia Sea Turtle Center guessing.
Last November, nine critically endangered sea turtles were found stranded in Brewster, Massachusetts, after freezing temperatures left them cold-stunned and sick. After a brief visit to the New England Aquarium, the turtles took a 1,000-mile flight to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center in Jekyll Island for extended care.
Jaynie L. Gaskin, the center’s director, was told the group included eight Kemp’s ridley sea turtles and one loggerhead. But when she loaded nine boxes into the center’s turtle van, she noticed something was off.
“Where is the loggerhead?” she recalled asking in a post for the Jekyll Island Foundation. “These are all Kemp’s Ridleys.”
The pilots confirmed all the turtles had been carried off the plane, so Gaskin and the team opened the boxes again. Then she found the missing turtle.
“Oh, here they are,” Gaskin said. “This little loggerhead looks so much like the others; I must have counted them as just another Kemp’s.”
She later told hospital manager Rachel Overmeyer, “That little guy really fooled me with their round shell and small head.”
At the center, the turtles were given tea-themed names: Chai, Boba, Darjeeling, Matcha, Jasmine, Peppermint, Chamomile and Oolong. The loggerhead, which had unusual physical traits, was named Earl Grey after the “blended black tea.”
“As the veterinarian examined Earl Grey, he pointed out several unusual features,” Gaskin recalled. “A sharp hooked tip at the front of the beak is typically found on Kemp’s Ridley turtles, not loggerheads.”
“The shell raised even more questions,” she added. “Loggerheads usually have heart-shaped carapaces, while Kemp’s Ridleys have round shells. Earl Grey’s carapace appeared unusually round, with ridges more characteristic of a Kemp’s.”
Staff took a blood sample and sent it to the University of Georgia for genetic testing.
“Just as rehabilitation was nearing completion, the genetic test results arrived,” Gaskin said. “Earl Grey was confirmed to be a first-generation hybrid, with a loggerhead father and a Kemp’s Ridley mother, the first hybrid sea turtle ever treated at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.”
After seven months of rehabilitation, care, and plenty of squid and leafy greens, Earl Grey was cleared for release. On May 28, he returned to Georgia waters in a private release as staff cheered him on.
In an interview with Popular Science, Gaskin said, “From an evolutionary perspective, hybridization could be one of many ways genetic diversity is introduced into a population. We encourage other rehabilitation facilities to consider genetic testing for any suspected hybrid sea turtles, as there may be more individuals than we currently realize!”
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