Leatherback turtles reaching shores all over the place

Californians can proudly claim a champion in the Great Turtle Race, an international event we told you about earlier this month that tracked the journey of 11 radio-tagged leatherbacks in the Pacific Ocean toward the International Date Line.

The first to reach the finish line was a turtle named Saphira II, sponsored by the Bullis Charter School of Los Altos, Calif. Turtle enthusiasts can relive the adventure by visiting the race's website and watching an interactive recreation using a rainbow of colors to differentiate the turtles.

But Saphira II and her competitors aren't the only leatherbacks making strides on the world's shores. The New York Times is also reporting that the creatures showed up for the first time in decades on Texas tan-tinged beaches near Corpus Christi:

For the first time since the 1930s, federal biologists confirmed that a leatherback sea turtle has nested on a Texas beach, at the Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi.

Last Friday, staff conducting a beach patrol found turtle tracks and a few exposed eggs. They were thought at first to be those of a green turtle. But the eggs and the width of the tracks, more than 6 feet across, were later determined by a park biologist, Cynthia Rubio, to be from a leatherback. The giant turtles, endangered around the world, have until now only been known to nest in four spots in the United States –- with about three dozen females a year laying eggs on beaches along the east coast of Florida and slightly larger nesting populations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There is evidence of nesting in North Carolina as well.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Scott Benson/U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service

Taking a trip with the turtles

Watching turtles race across the ocean doesn't sound like the most dynamic contest, but a group of environmentalists and scientists begs to differ -- creating ahighly interactive site chronicling an international Pacific Ocean jaunt for leatherback turtles.

The 11 turtles racing have been equipped with satellite tags and are headed toward the International Dateline (or the middle of the Pacific Ocean) from nesting beaches in Indonesia and feeding areas along the U.S. West Coast. The race, which begins today and runs until June 16, covers more than 3,000 miles.

The leatherback is a sea turtle that's been around for 100 million years -- they have outlived the dinosaurs but now are dangerously close to extinction, said Mike Milne, Leatherback Campaign Coordinator for the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, one of the race's sponsors.

Numbers in the Pacific Ocean have decreased from about 115,000 two decades ago to fewer than 5,000 today. The Web site chronicling the race aims to raise funds for protecting leatherback turtle-nesting areas in Indonesia, organizers said.

"The decline of leatherbacks in the Pacific is an international problem that calls for an international solution, so our Great Turtle Race efforts to raise the international profile of this species are an important step," Milne said.

Dubbed the Great Turtle Race II, organizers include The Leatherback Trust, NOAA, Global Cause, Tagging of Pacific  Pelagics, Sea Turtle Restoration Project, and Drexel University. Eleven institutions and sponsors from America, China and Indonesia are sponsoring the turtles.

As the leatherbacks surface to breath every several minutes, satellite tags transmit data such as location and water temperature to satellites in space, which then transmit the data back down to computer servers in the U.S. 

"This data is combined with remotely sensed information about sea surface temperature, sea surface height, and more to build a comprehensive understanding of leatherbacks’ epic, trans-Pacific  migrations," Milne said. "Scientists and managers will be able to use this information on oceanography, animal behaviors and human pressures to develop innovative ways to conserve leatherbacks and other sea turtles."

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Scott Benson/U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service

Can you spot the cheetah?

We believe the folks at Washington's National Zoo when they say have cheetahs, presumably spotted like this one lounging at the Wild Animal Park in Escondido. We really do. But every time we've looked at the zoo's cheetah cam, all we ever see is an empty enclosure.

So help us out: Watch the cam and let us know in the comments section below if you spot a cheetah. Or not.

And speaking of webcams, check out the zoo cams on the right side of this page. The National Zoo and San Diego Zoo have great offerings. Among others, there's panda cam (very cute), naked mole rat cam (kind of spooky) and black-footed ferret cam (oddly compelling, even if the ferret is usually sleeping).

Photo: Gina Ferazzi/LAT