Science Network WA

TEXT BY GEOFF VIVIAN

Climate change could lead to sea turtles successfully breeding further south, a scientist says.

While instinct drives a mother turtle to lay her eggs at her own hatching place, cyclones sometimes take her a long way away when she is ready to lay.

She may have to make an emergency landing – and laying – on another beach when she is caught short.

Hotter summers are likely to make new beaches warm enough to incubate turtle eggs in future.

Dirk Hartog Island has the southernmost loggerhead turtle rookery.

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This story was republished in The Northern Guardian on 13 November 2013.