After dinner, i began my beach patrol with our ranger at Kuala Bahru beach. As the ranger could not understand much English and I was unable to communicate in malay, we trekked the beach in silent darkness. It started to become monotonous when we spotted a dark figure from a distance away. As we approached we spotted a set of terrapin tracks and as we hurried closer, we were pleasantly surprised by the sight of a terrapin sand-bathing on the beach. Amazingly, the terrapin did not shy away from us, and we proceeded to retrieve the terrapin eggs from its nest. Seeing this great opportunity, i proceeded to take a few quick pictures of the terrapin.
The ranger quickly got to work, and we began to retrieve the eggs from the nest. There were twelve eggs in total. This terrapin was really large and I was really lucky, not just to be able to see it, but also to take some good pictures of this terrapin.
After we had finish collecting the eggs, we began to carry on with our patrol. Normally terrapins would move away at first sight of humans, but this terrapin remained fixed to the spot even after we had moved away from the nest.
On the way to the hatchery, we met another fellow ranger and we proceeded to the hatchery to place the collected eggs. We carried on with a second patrol shortly after our rest at the ranger’s hut, but there weren’t any more sightings of the terrapins.It was a lucky night for me to be able to spot a terrapin, as they will usually shy away from any human activity like fishing boats which are common around Kuala Bahru. Even though the trek was a little longer, but it was a great experience to spot a terrapin sandbathing.
Signing off,
Nicholas
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