Second Caretta caretta turtle nest in Fetovaia

In this extraordinary spawning season on the Island of Elba, the eighth nest in Fetovaia,that had initially been missed and therefore not watched over turned out to have a record number of eggs laid: as many as 124.

The discovery of this nest was thanks to having noticed an unexpected baby turtle on the beach in Fetovaia on the evening of October 19th, with many other eggs that hatched from that moment onwards.

This extra nest, with eggs still to hatch that went on for almost three months is of vital importance if we want to better understand these antique reptiles,Once the nest was uncovered we were able to learn many very important scientific details, that will play a significant role in the European LIFE TurtleNest project, carried out along with Legambiente and with the collaboration of ARPAT. Not only that, all the information gathered will be used for the NatNet project of the region of Tuscany that directly involves the Universities of Pisa, Siena and Florence as well as the Zooprophylactic Institute and ARPAT.

On the beach in Fetovaia they found the shells of 77 egg shells that had hatched, and 47 that had not hatched, making a total of 124 eggs that had been laid. Inside the nest other tiny baby turtles that were still alive were found, and they then managed to reach the sea on their own while several others were already dead.