In August, seven red sea turtles, a national first-class protected wild animal, broke out of their shells under the careful care of the conservationists of Haichang Polar Ocean Park in Qingdao, Shandong Province, which was the first time in China that the successful breeding and incubation of red sea turtles was achieved in an artificial breeding environment.
On June 1, a female red sea turtle that had lived in Qingdao's Haichang Polar Ocean Park for more than a decade laid 30 eggs, and the nurses promptly transferred the eggs to the incubator. Through careful adjustment and observation of temperature, humidity and other aspects, after more than 70 days of incubation, on August 11, the baby red sea turtle had signs of breaking its shell, and then the conservation staff carried out 24-hour day and night observation, after more than 20 hours of long waiting, on the morning of August 12, the first small red sea turtle bravely broke its shell. This baby red turtle has a 5 cm long dorsal carapace and weighs 25 g.
As of August 26, seven baby red turtles have hatched out of their shells. After careful cultivation by the nursery, 6 of the red sea turtles are developing normally, weighing about 25g, the average dorsal carapace length is 5 cm, and they have eaten stably; the other 1 red sea turtle baby is deformed, weak, and currently has poor eating ability. The red turtle mother's health is also normal.
As early as 1989, China listed all 5 species of sea turtles distributed in the region as national second-level protected wild animals, and the revised "List of Wild Animals under National Key Protection" in 2021 has upgraded all sea turtles to national first-level protected wild animals. In 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs specially organized the preparation and release of the "Sea Turtle Protection Action Plan (2019-2033)", which identified 7 key tasks and 18 key actions for sea turtle protection in China, and made unified deployment of sea turtle protection and management work nationwide in the coming period.
In order to promote the smooth development of sea turtle protection, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the "SC-T9604-2018 Sea Turtle Feeding Code" on May 7, 2018, and implemented it on September 1, 2018. Previously, Yantai Haichang Whale Shark Ocean Park under Haichang Ocean Park has successfully bred more than 100 green sea turtles in captivity environment for two consecutive years, and the successful breeding of red sea turtles in Qingdao Haichang Polar Ocean Park will further promote the protection and breeding of sea turtles in China.
In recent years, many aquariums in China have achieved gratifying results in species breeding and conservation, such as the aquariums of Haichang Ocean Park, Zhuhai Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, Penglai Eight Immortals Cross-Sea Tourism Co., Ltd., Dalian Shengya Tourism Holding Co., Ltd., Underwater World (Hunan) Co., Ltd. and other aquariums have achieved good results in the breeding of dolphins, seals, beluga whales and so on. The aquarium not only provides a variety of popular science cultural products to the majority of tourists to meet the growing needs of the general public, but also becomes an important place for science popularization and education on the protection of aquatic wildlife. The aquarium has advanced equipment, a domestication team with skilled breeding technology, and medical and veterinary personnel, providing a good place and conservation conditions for species rescue and conservation. It is necessary to make good use of and give full play to the favorable conditions of aquariums, build them into scientific popularization education bases, scientific research bases, breeding and breeding bases and rescue and conservation bases for the protection of aquatic wildlife, and promote the healthy development of China's aquatic wildlife protection cause.
Sea turtles are famous "living fossils", first appeared 40 million years ago, and the red sea turtle, as a genus of turtles in the turtle family, is one of the oldest surviving reptiles.
Red sea turtle (scientific name: Caretta caretta), alias: red turtle. Adult red turtles have reddish-brown carapace, a body length of more than 90 cm, and a weight of more than 135 kg. Red sea turtles are mainly found in subtropical waters and are often found near the continental shelf and estuaries. It mainly feeds on benthic invertebrates, gastropods, bivalves and decadetta molluscs, and will also eat floating jellyfish and fish eggs during migration, and their powerful jaws can crush the shell of food.
Source: Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Branch of China Wildlife Conservation Association