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UD alumna studies leatherback sea turtles in Costa Rica

It’s not every day that you get to see a creature that has been around for 110 million years emerge from the ocean and lay its eggs on the beach. Unless, of course, you’re like University of Delaware graduate Lauren Cruz, who spends her days in Costa Rica with the Leatherback Trust studying leatherback sea turtle nesting ecology.

Cruz, a 2013 graduate who studied wildlife conservation in UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is tracking the demographics of the turtles that nest at Playa Grande and Parque Nacional de las baulas — which translates to the park of leatherback sea turtles — and spends her nights with a team patrolling the beach looking for nesting turtles. (more…)

Red Knots and Horseshoe Crabs Knotted Together

By Guest PostJuly 10, 2011Environment, Naturearctic breeding grounds, atlantic loggerhead sea turtles, chesapeake bay, conor mcgowan, crabs, delaware bay, ecological links, ecosphere, horseshoe crab, james hines, james lyons, james nichols, mid atlantic region, migrating shorebirds, new jersey, nutrient rich eggs, red knot, scorpions, sea turtle, shorebird species, spiders, ticks, U.S. Geological Survey, usgs, virginia

*Research Bolsters Importance of Horseshoe Crab Spawning for Migrating Shorebirds*

LAUREL, Md. – Speculation that the welfare of a small, at-risk shorebird is directly tied to horseshoe crab populations is in part supported by new scientific research, according to a U.S. Geological Survey- led study published in Ecosphere, a journal of the Ecological Society of America.

Population health of the red knot, a shorebird species whose population has plummeted over the last 15 years, has been directly tied to the number of egg-laying horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay — between Delaware and New Jersey — during the red knot’s northward migration each spring. (more…)

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Leatherback sea turtles

Red Knots and Horseshoe Crabs Knotted Together