Social Facilitation in Green Turtle Siblings

Résumé du livre

1. Tests made at the green turtle nesting ground at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, show that turtles hatching singly have reduced prospects of emerging from the nest, and even less chance of reaching the sea. 2. Observations through glass nest sides, and of young going from the nest to the sea, show that group facilitation, probably involving both mechanical and psychological factors, occurs. 3. Data from tests at Ascension Island, extending Hendrickson''s results (1958) in the China Sea, indicate that metabolic heating raises the temperature in nests of developing green turtle eggs and suggests that this may constitute thermal co-operation affecting the fitness of the sets of eggs and young as evolutionary units.