Scientists prepare to study 200kg turtle
Researchers at New Zealand’s national museum have started studying a 200-kilogram turtle which washed up on Banks Peninsula.
The endangered leatherback sea turtle, which washed up at Pigeon Bay in Banks Peninsula on Monday, arrived at Te Papa yesterday.
Vertebrates curator Alan Tennyson drove from Wellington to Christchurch to collect the turtle, which measures 1.8 metres long. It will be frozen at the museum’s Tory St facility.
Fellow vertebrates curator Dr Colin Miskelly said researchers would now begin working through how the turtle will be ‘‘skeletonised’’ to enable research.
‘‘Our main interest is in getting disarticulated skeletons prepared for comparison with Miocene fossils,’’ Miskelly said. The giant turtle’s cause of death is unknown at this stage.
However, a necropsy of the turtle would be completed over the coming months, which may reveal how it died.
‘‘Any other research is peripheral to skeleton preparation, but we would check gut contents during necropsy if they are not too decomposed.
‘‘In addition to identifying prey remains, this would reveal if the turtle had plastic bags in its gut,’’ Miskelly said.
Te Papa’s pou tikanga (cultural adviser) Taharakau Stewart blessed the turtle before it was handed over to scientists.
‘‘This turtle is a gift Tangaroa (god of the sea) has given. This gift is fitting not only for the reflection that we have been having since last Friday, but scientifically to help the environment,’’ Stewart said.
‘‘With this taonga comes a new beginning as one people, one nation, one land.’’
Local iwi gave approval for the turtle to be gifted to the museum for research.
Leatherback sea turtles are the largest of all living turtles. The turtle was so large that the Department of Conservation had to move it with a farm tractor.
Miskelly said the leatherback turtle had been on the museum’s wish list as Te Papa had a research programme focused on fossil turtles and tortoises.
Turtles are difficult animals to turn into a skeleton. Museum staff hadn’t attempted it before.
Their bones are soft and ‘‘full of oil’’, which means they’re difficult to keep without rotting.
‘‘This turtle is a gift Tangaroa (god of the sea) has given . . . With this taonga comes a new beginning as one people, one nation, one land.’’
Cultural adviser Taharakau Stewart