This week, scientists in Brazil weren't kidding when they said that they “hit the mother lode.”
They were referring to a mass hatching of an estimated 210,000 giant South American river turtles at the Abufari Biological Reserve. It’s one of the largest known hatchings for the species,Podocnemis expansa.
Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Chico Mendes Institutefor Biodiversity Conservation were able to mark and release 15,000 of the hatchings. The methodology is usually referred to as “mark and recapture,” and it will allow the researchers to estimate the size of the turtle’s population in the future.
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