NATGEO.ORG/EXPLORERMAG | VOL. 18 NO. 4 ’ C H O I C S S R E M E A H W C A A R SPECIAL ISSUE: E D T FOR THE WOMEN CLASSROOM L E 2019 E A I N R Z N I A IN SCIENCE N G ® M A G PATHFINDER Kim Williams-Guillén 2 Dominique Gonçalves 10 Beverly Goodman 18 ToTo CatCat aa ThieThie 2 Our Changing Planet LIFE SCIENCE As you read, think about how people can have a negative or a positive effect on the environment. chch aa ThieThieff National Geographic Explorer Kim Williams-Guillén created a way to track poachers who steal sea turtle eggs. By Brenna Maloney 3 Beaches where A thief waits in the darkness. His eyes sea turtles nest scan the Nicaraguan beach. Soon, he spots HONDURAS what he is looking for: A sea turtle digging CARIBBEAN SEA a nest. She begins to lay her eggs in the nest. NICARAGUA She falls into a trance. She doesn’t notice Chacocente PACIFIC La Flor the thief. OCEAN COSTA RICA The thief reaches into the nest and pulls SCALE 0 200 400 miles out the eggs, one by one. The turtle mother N lays her last egg and uses her back flippers Olive ridley turtles come to these beaches to cover it. She does not know that the nest by the thousands to lay their eggs during arribadas. Arribada means is now empty. The thief has taken every “arrival” in Spanish. last egg. Struggle for Survival Sea turtles have lived in our oceans for The greatest threat sea turtles face is millions of years. But now they are an people. People in some cultures eat sea endangered species. As few as one in turtle eggs. In Central America, poachers 10,000 baby sea turtles will survive to destroy more than 90 percent of the nests adulthood. They face many threats. on unguarded beaches. The eggs are After they hatch, they must crawl to the smuggled into cities to be eaten. ocean. But birds and other animals try to It only takes one poacher to cause a lot eat them. If the babies make it to the ocean, of damage. A stretch of coastline may have they face predators in the water. Some die only a few female turtles. If one person in fishing nets. Others eat plastic trash. robbed every nest, that person could Today, all but one of the world’s seven threaten an entire species. sea turtle species are in trouble. Of the four The demand for the eggs is high. A species that come to Nicaragua to lay their single egg can be sold for as much as $300. eggs, two are “critically endangered.” They Little is known about the routes poachers are the hawksbill and leatherback turtles. use. So, poachers are hard to catch. Risks Green sea turtles are “endangered.” Olive to the eggs seemed unbeatable. Until one ridley sea turtles are “vulnerable.” scientist had an idea. 4 Trip to the Sea 1 2 A female sea turtle comes onto a beach. She digs with her flippers and creates a shallow nest. 3 4 The mother turtle lays as many as She covers the nest with sand 120 eggs in the nest. and returns to the sea. 5 6 After several weeks, the hatchlings The young turtles make their way break through their shells. across the beach to reach the ocean. PATHFINDER 5 Looking for a Solution Kim Williams-Guillén is an ecologist. She’s Williams-Guillén knew she needed help. also the director of conservation science So, she contacted Lauren Wilde, a special for Paso Pacífico. The group protects effects and makeup artist in Los Angeles. biodiversity in Central America. Wilde took the printed eggs and sanded She knew sea turtle eggs were poached, them to make them smooth. Then she but there was so much she didn’t know. applied coats of paint and glue to get the Where did the poachers go? Who was right color. buying the eggs? She needed a way to From the outside, the fake eggs look track the poachers. What if she created a almost identical to real ones. But on the fake turtle egg with a tracking device in it? inside, the fake egg is packed with the What if she put it in a fresh sea turtle nest? kind of electronics you might find in a cell If it looked real enough, poachers might phone. They connect to the internet. They not notice. reveal the date and time that the egg is at a certain location. A New Idea Not only can the team track the egg, Paso Pacífico submitted this idea to the they can also figure out how fast the egg is Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge. It was moving. That may help them determine the selected in 2016 as one of 16 winners out of kind of transportation used to move 300 applicants. The prize money was used the egg. to help develop the first prototype for the Each fake egg costs about $40 to make. fake eggs. And Williams-Guillén needed several to A real sea turtle egg is about the size of test in the field. Luckily, Paso Pacífico was a Ping-Pong ball. It has a small dent in it. awarded another prize to It’s not covered in a hard shell. Instead, it’s further develop the project. slightly squishy. To get an almost rubbery feel, Williams-Guillén needed to find the right sort of plastic. She tested several materials before finding the right one. She used a 3-D printer to produce the fake egg. But it still didn’t look quite right. In a real egg, the yellow yolk almost shines through the thin, white shell. Each fake egg weighs as much as a real egg. However, it is stuffed with a tracking device. 6 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER Hollywood makeup artist Lauren Wilde uses paint and glue on the fake eggs to make them look real. Lauren Wilde inspects one of the fake sea turtle eggs. The fake eggs are hard to spot. One was placed on top of this nest. PATHFINDER 7 Finding a Partner Paso Pacífico teamed up with wildlife biologist Helen Pheasey. Pheasey was willing to plant some decoy eggs. She had three goals. First, she needed to see if the technology in the eggs would work in the field. Second, she needed to see if the design of the eggs could trick poachers. And third, she needed to make sure that the fake eggs did not disturb the real eggs’ health. So far, the news has been good. The healthy eggs are not bothered by the fake eggs. The poachers have been fooled. And the tracking works. Pheasey was able to track some decoys to their destinations. The system isn’t perfect. Limited cell networks A Paso Pacífico turtle ranger collects could limit their ability to track the eggs. turtle eggs for safekeeping nearby. But, it’s a good start! Sea Turtles in Nicaragua Sea turtles can live for more than 50 years. They are an important part of a healthy marine ecosystem. Nicaragua’s beaches have long been crucial nesting grounds. Sadly, they have seen a sharp decline in sea turtles. green sea turtle hawksbill sea turtle Length: 100 centimeters (3.2 feet) Length: up to 94 centimeters (3 feet) Weight: 180 kilograms (397 pounds) Weight: 80 kilograms (176 pounds) Presence: Caribbean Coast, Pacific Coast Presence: Caribbean Coast, Pacific Coast Status: Endangered Status: Critically Endangered Many green turtles are caught in Nicaragua The shell of the hawksbill turtle is often used for food. to make souvenirs. 8 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER What Comes Next Using more fake eggs is the next step. Williams-Guillén doesn’t think her With more data, it will be easier to make fake eggs will solve the problem of turtle a map to show where the eggs are traded. egg poaching. But she does think it could The locations will help the team better be a powerful tool. Combined with other understand the demand for turtle eggs. conservation efforts, it could help ensure Experts believe most of the stolen that sea turtles are safe for the future. eggs make their way to El Salvador or Guatemala. There is also a concern that WORDWISE sea turtle eggs are being shipped overseas. biodiversity: the variety of living things If this is true, it could mean new markets in a given place for the eggs. And a trade that would be ecologist: a person who studies the harder to combat. Still, the information relationships between living things and gathered by the team could help police their surroundings capture poachers. endangered species: a species at risk of The data could also be becoming extinct, or dying out used for conservation poacher: a person who hunts, kills, or projects, such as beach captures animals illegally patrols to monitor the nests. leatherback sea turtle olive ridley sea turtle Length: 150 centimeters (5 feet) Length: up to 74 centimeters (2.4 feet) Weight: up to 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds) Weight: 45 kilograms (100 pounds) Presence: Caribbean Coast, Pacific Coast Presence: Pacific Coast Status: Critically Endangered Status: Vulnerable The leatherback turtle is the largest sea turtle Olive ridley turtles are the most abundant sea living on Earth. turtle, yet they are still endangered. PATHFINDER 9 GORONGOSA’SGORONGOSA’SGORONGOSA’S ELEPHANTSELEPHANTSELEPHANTS 10 Wildlife and Wild Places LIFE SCIENCE As you read, think about how elephants’ memories and perceptions affect their behavior. Years of civil war brought harm to the elephants.